Falana Describes National Assembly’s Defense Of Budget Alterations As ‘Arrant Nonsense’

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana says the National Assembly’s excuses for altering the 2018 Appropriation Bill is “arrant nonsense”.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari signed the budget into law last week but lamented that the National Assembly cut out lots of important projects to make way for less important ones.

 

The legislature defended its actions, saying “everything that the National Assembly has done is within its powers”.

 

But in an interview with Punch, Falana disagreed. He quoted Section 318 of the Nigerian Constitution, stating that the financial year begins from the first day of January and that since it starts at the beginning of the year “the Appropriation Bill ought to be passed by the National Assembly not later than December 31 of each year”.

 

He said the fact that the 2018 budget was signed in the middle of the year “calls for concern”.

 

“What we are witnessing is the height of impunity on the part of both the executive and the legislative organs of the government. The crisis has continued because the Fiscal Responsibility Act is often ignored,” he said.

 

“The law was designed to fill the so-called lacuna in Section 81 of the Constitution. Under the law, the input of the National Assembly and other agencies of the government shall be incorporated in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which is to reflect public expenditure and projection.”

 

On the cuts by the National Assembly to the budget, Falana said the legislators are now so bold in arrogance and impunity.

 

“Otherwise, how can they insert 6,403 projects while the President proposed 4,700 projects and increased capital expenditure form N2.36bn to N2.87bn? With respect, the Buhari administration has itself to blame for the mangling or padding of the budget by the National Assembly,” he said.

 

He added that the excuse given by the National Assembly that the cuts were made to address the lopsidedness in allocations to projects is “arrant nonsense”.

 

“By virtue of Section 59 of the Constitution, all money bills shall originate exclusively from the Executive. All other bills are to originate from either chamber of the National Assembly,” he said.

 

“Specifically, Section 81 provides that the President shall cause the estimates and revenues of expenditure to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly.

 

“The point I am labouring to make is that the National Assembly has got no power to introduce money bills to correct imbalance in the budget. It is trite law that any power excised by any authority or institution under a democratic government is traced to a particular law.

 

“I challenge the National Assembly members to point to any law that empowers them to rewrite the budget and pass it in order to correct geographical imbalance.”

 

He maintained that the action of the lawmakers is an illegality the executive has allowed to continue for too long. Citing Section 4,5,6 of the Constitution, he said” “The national Assembly cannot combine legislative duties with executive function “by introducing new projects into an appropriation law and turning round to execute certain provisions of the same appropriation law. It is an aberration under the presidential system of government”