Uproar as APC Reps stall 2014 budget debate?

Speaker, Alhaji  Aminu Tambuwal

Members of the All Progressives Congress  in  the House of Representatives on Tuesday stalled  debate on the 2014 Appropriation Bill.

 The development appeared to be the first phase of the lawmakers’ compliance with the directive of  the national leadership of their party to “block” all Executive  bills, particularly  the budget.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported on Tuesday that the lawmakers were set for  a stormy debate on the budget

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The leadership of the APC had, at a meeting with the members of the party in Abuja on Tuesday, restated its directive to them to ensure that the Appropriation bill was not passed.

 The  row in the House was however prevented from degenerating by the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, who continuously advised the  angry lawmakers to exercise decorum.

 Tuesday’s plenary  progressed normally until  Tambuwal asked the Majority Leader, Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, to lead the debate on the general principles of  the N4.6tn budget.

 She had hardly finished speaking  when an APC member from Benue State, Mr. Emmanuel Jime, raised a point of order strictly on grounds of law.

 Jime noted that the budget estimates, as presented before the House, breached Section 21 (I,II,III) of the Fiscal Responsibly Act, 2007.

 According to  him,  the Act provides that the government corporations listed under Section 21  “shall  not later than six months from the commencement of this Act, submit the estimates of expenditure for the next three years” to the National Assembly.

 Jime, who is also  a lawyer, added that the law required the Minister of Finance to “ cause” and attach the estimates of the corporations to the national budget presented to the National Assembly.

 He  named the listed corporations as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian Ports Authority and “21 other agencies of government.”

 The lawmaker argued that, having gone through the budget estimates, he found out that  the estimates of the corporations were not attached as required by law.

 Rather, he said the budget merely had “the summary and abridged versions” of the budgets of the corporations.

 Jime added that, proceeding to debate the budget in view of what he considered to be a violation of the law, would not be in the interest of the country.

 He told his colleagues  that as legislators, they were called to uphold the provisions of the law at all times.

 “The pattern of presenting this budget has breached our laws; the House should not allow itself to do the wrong thing because we want to satisfy the comfort of the moment”, Jime  added.

 At this point, some PDP members, who did not like his line of argument, started shouting at him to sit down.

 “Point of order”, “point of order, Mr. Speaker”, Mr. Nedo Karibi from Bayelsa State, shouted. Several other PDP members joined him in shouting at Jime to sit down.

However, Tambuwal protected him by saying that in keeping with the rules of the House, a member already speaking on a point of order must be allowed to exhaust his remarks before another point of order could be taken.

 Jime continued and cited the $10.8bn said to be missing from the account of the NNPC as reference.

 He said that if  the corporation attached its budget estimates to the   budget, members would have noticed the missing money and pointed it out.

 As Jime resumed his seat, Tambuwal called on the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Mr. John Enoh, to respond.

 Enoh, a Peoples Democratic Party member from Cross River State, said, “I disagree with the indication that the budget is in breach of any law whatsoever.”

 He recalled that the “struggle” to get the Executive to comply with the FRA had been on for years.

 Enoh even praised the Executive, claiming that in the last three years, it(Executive) had improved by sending the abridged versions of the budgets of the NNPC, CBN and others to the National Assembly.

 He said in the past, nothing was sent to the legislature, yet the successive budgets were passed.

 However, Enoh explained that it was a matter for the various standing committees of the House over-sighting the agencies to demand the details of the abridged versions in the course of  budget defence.

 “The standing Committee on Banking and Currency for example, will call the CBN to ask questions on all issues while looking at their budget”, he stated.

 Enoh reminded members that it was only when the committees were satisfied with the details of the estimates that they would report further action to either the House or call for more information.

But, as he spoke, APC lawmakers booed him, some shouting, “no”, “no”; “it is not true.”

 Tambuwal quickly intervened and ruled that to avoid the matter dragging for long, he would set up a six-man advisory committee to examine the issues raised by Jime and Enoh.

 The committee was directed to report back to the House “within 24 hours.”

 He observed that while Jime’s point of order dealt with whether the budget complied with the law, Enoh, “in his own opinion”, informed the House that there was no breach of the law.

 Members of the advisory committee  are the  Chairman, House Committee on Rules/Business, Mr. Albert Sam-Sokwa; Mr. Sunday Adekpoju; Mr. Aminu Shagari; Mr. Ali Ahmad; and Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwuogbo.

 - How APC plotted and executed its plan

 Investigations showed that the APC caucus tricked their PDP counterparts by adopting a different “tactic” from the normal approach of moving a motion to condemn the budget and demand that it should be stopped.

 A source disclosed that the caucus realised that such a motion might have failed if put to vote.

 “Therefore, what the caucus decided to do was to look out for legal loopholes to hold on to.

 “The issue of complying with the FRA easily came to mind”, the source stated.

 Findings also revealed that the caucus kept the Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, out of the matter, since “he will usually be opposed by the PDP members.”

It was gathered  that because of this,  Jime became the choice to raise the point of law to stop the debate.

 Jime defected from the  PDP to the APC  barely two weeks ago. While all attention was on Gbajabiamila, Jime stood up to execute the caucus’s plan.

 The PUNCH learnt that the caucus concluded on how to execute the plot at a meeting the members held a few minutes to the start of Tuesday’s sitting.

 Meanwhile, the House has adjourned plenary till Tuesday next week to allow APC members to travel to their constituencies and participate in the membership registration exercise of their party.

Tambuwal had announced the adjournment during Tuesday’s sitting.

The  bill however had a smooth sail  in the Senate where it passed   through its  second reading.

Last week, the members, including those in the  APC,   had  condemned the  bill  and called  for its review.

Immediately it passed the second reading, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided,    asked the committees on Finance and Appropriation to begin work on it  without delay.

He also advised  the committees to liaise with their counterparts in the House of Representatives for  harmonisation of their positions on the budget.

Ekweremadu, who  enjoined the committee to conclude its  activities within three weeks,  commended his colleagues for their frank contributions during the four-day budget debate.

He noted that the senators identified   waste, neglect of critical sectors and   disparity in the award of ongoing projects across the country  as some of the gaps in the budget.

The  Deputy Senate President  said the budget debate had brought out the beauty of democracy.

 Earlier in their contributions, the APC  senators had insisted that the budget fell short of the expectations of Nigerians.

For instance, Senators Adegbenga Kaka, Olubunmi Adetunmbi, and Babafemi Ojudu, concluded that the budget was incapable of meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

Kaka said if concerted efforts were not made  by   relevant agencies, the Federal Government might  not be able to control the rising exchange rate  of the naira against  foreign currencies.

However, Senators Hellen Esuene, Nkechi Nwogu, Matthew Nwagwu and Chris Nwankwo of the PDP, commended the budget and called on   their colleagues  to   pass it.