The Senate on Tuesday began debate on the 2014 Appropriation bill
with members disagreeing along party lines on its passage.
While the Peoples Democratic Party senators commended the bill and
called for its immediate approval, their All Progressives
Congress counterparts sought its rejection and return to the Executive
for a rejig.
To the PDP senators, the appropriation bill should be passed
because it would promote economic growth and add fillip to the
Transformation Agenda of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
But the APC lawmakers believed that it was not packaged to empower the
people and address insecurity in the country, especially in
the North-East.
In fact, one of the APC lawmakers, who said the bill “does
not worth the paper it was written on,” called for the
resignation of the Minister of Finance and the Supervising Minister for the
Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, because she had disappointed Nigerians.
Before the lawmakers started making their contributions, the President
of the Senate, David Mark, had enjoined them to use “national
magnifying glasses to view the budget instead of reducing it
to partisan politics.”
The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma – Egba, in the lead debate, had
explained that the budget was premised on the 2014 -2016 Medium Term
Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which took into consideration,
the heightened global economic uncertainty in 2013.
He attributed the drop in the 2014 budget estimates to the challenges
caused by oil theft, pipeline sabotage and production shut-ins at oil
fields.
Ndoma – Egba said in spite of the drop, the financial
framework would add impetus to the transformation
agenda of the current administration.
The Senate Leader added that the budget was laudable because it would
promote economic growth, wealth creation, service delivery
and employment opportunities.
He, however, faulted the non-equitable distribution of the
Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme Funds and the reduction
in the allocation to the Judiciary in the budget.
But he went ahead to urge his colleagues to support
the budget’s second reading and committal to committees for further
consideration.
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, also appealed
to his colleagues to take the debate on the budget with all seriousness
it deserved because it was key to the implementation of ongoing
projects in the country.
He, however, expressed concern that some critical projects
being executed in various parts of the country were not captured in the 2014
budget.
Senator George Akume stressed the need for the Ministry of
Finance to forward to the National Assembly, the necessary documents on the
Fiscal Responsibility Bill to aid deliberations on the 2014 budget.
He described the N268.3bn SURE-P Fund as an omnibus and
wondered the real purpose of the money.
The lawmaker called for the prioritisation of the issues that
would be accommodated in the budget based on the nation’s expenditure profile
in the next three years.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs,
Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, urged the lawmakers to follow the example of
the APC-controlled Rivers State by passing the budget without further
deliberation.
Senator Issa Galaudu also urged them to support the bill,
but faulted the implementation of the 2013 budget, especially the decision of
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to spend $8bn on
kerosene subsidy.
Galaudu noted that the poor implementation of budgets had been a
major challenge since 1999, because they had continued
to grow.
He said, “From N947bn in 1999 to N4.6 tn today, it has grown by over 400
per cent, yet, the impact has not been felt by all Nigerians. There are some
bloated expenses. Even with huge security budget, every MDA has security
provisions. All these make capital expenditure smaller.”
Senators Paulinus Igwe, Phillip Aduda and Giang Pajok, all
supported the passage of the budget but stressed the need for
increased allocation to the Federal Capital Territory, defence and
the judiciary.
However, most of the APC members who contributed to the debate like
Senators Ahmed Lawan, Alkali Jajere, Abubakar Yar’Adua, Abdulmumuni Hassan
and Babajide Omoworare, condemned the budget and asked their
colleagues to reject it.
Lawan, who described the budget as anti -people, said it was
packaged to further boost the economic power of politicians, senior
civil servants and high networth industrialists.
He stated that 74 per cent of the N4.6 tn was set
aside for recurrent expenditure while 26 per cent
was for capital projects.
The senator wondered while over N100bn was allocated to the Niger
Delta, which is currently enjoying relative peace while
only N2bn was allocated to the North- East, which is experiencing a
high level of insecurity.
He said, “I want to clarify that I have nothing against the South-South
or the Niger Delta. But what I am saying is that the funds proposed
for defence are far low compared to the amount
earmarked for 30,000 militants and the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta.
“The amnesty programme and the 30,000 militants will have N52bn while
defence will have just about N34bn. And what we are saying is that we have a
state of emergency in the North-East and that security agents should be well
funded.
“Why don’t we fund the security agencies better when you are taking so
much money for what is, in my opinion, not more important than the
security of our people. I believe that while fighting insurgency, we need
to have a special package or special funding or some kind of
Marshal Plan for the North- East.
“And for the proposal for N2bn, I say we reject it as North-East
Development Initiative by the Federal Government compared to N163bn going to
the Niger Delta. Are we serious about tackling the problems in the
North-East?”
Lawan asked the National Assembly to rework the budget, leave whatever
was proposed for the Niger Delta, but make appreciable funds available
for the North-East.
He then called for the immediate resignation of
Okonjo-Iweala over her failure to reduce the recurrent expenditure
in the 2014 budget.
He said, “74 per cent is what was provided as recurrent
expenditure in 2011 when this administration came in. In 2013, it went down to
71, now we have gone back to 74. How many people are going to enjoy the
recurrent expenditure?
“What we are saying is that only about 13 per cent is going to the
masses of this country. How do you create jobs and alleviate poverty, the
people must be at the centre. They should be at the centre of the
implementation of the budget.
“We cannot have peace when we spend much of our funds on
ourselves. We have to spend the bulk of our funds on the people so that
everybody will have something to do and everybody would be safe.
Yar’Adua also said the budget “does not worth the paper on
which it was written because it does not hold anything for the common man.
Everything in the budget is for the political class, for the rich and the
bureaucrat.”
“Is our economy better today than 15 years ago? Are we more
developed today than we were 15 years ago? , he asked, adding, “I want
Okonjo -Iweala to resign because she has disappointed us.”
Omoworare said, “Having listened, it looks as if we have surrendered our
legislative duties to the Executive. The budget belongs to the parliament and
it is our responsibility to tinker with it.”
He called for the invocation of Section 82 of the constitution to
allow the lawmakers the time to dissect the budget .
Yes oh ! she has to resign.
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