Members of the National Assembly doubled the legislature’s 2011 budget allocation to N233 billion from the N111 billion proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan in order to establish the independence of the legislature and ensure its ability to check the excesses of the Executive, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations Mr. Ayo Adesuen said in Abuja yesterday.

Despite recent warnings by the Central Bank governor, among others, that the National Assembly was consuming too much of the Federal budget, the legislators effected a doubling of their budget when they passed the 2011 Appropriations bill on Wednesday.

Defending the action when he spoke to Daily Trust yesterday, Adeseun said, "Out of the N5 trillion budget, only about N300 billion naira comes to the legislature and the Judiciary because the Judiciary got N100 billion naira. That is what we need to make them independent and be able to check the excesses of the executive."

In the budget proposal forwarded to the MPs by President Goodluck Jonathan in December last year, the Senate was given N60 billion naira while the House was allocated N84 billion naira. Another N20 billion was allocated to the joint National Assembly office. Similarly, the president proposed N2.5 billion for the National Assembly Service Commission, another N4 billion for legislative aides; N260 million for the Senate Committee on Public Accounts; House Public Accounts committee N280 million, while General Services were to gulp N28 billion naira.

However, in the new Appropriation bill that is now awaiting presidential assent, the MPs increased their budgetary allocation to N232.7 billion naira, representing over 100 percent increase from the initial proposal.

The National Assembly is also being put under the statutory transfers under the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation together with the National Judicial Service Commission (NJC), the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) as a result of the amendments effected to the 1999 constitution last year, which sought to guarantee the financial independence of the legislature and the electoral body.

Speaking to Daily Trust on the telephone yesterday, chairman House committee on Appropriations Rep Ayo Adeseun said contrary to general assumptions, the budgets for all arms of government including those on the first line charge from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation "were usually subjected to scrutiny" before they were approved.

He said, "We still peruse their proposals and is subjected to regular appropriation processes but what this means now is that once it is appropriated, we cannot take away from them and they decide what to do with their money. We are trying to build a balance of forces by ensuring the autonomy of the three arms of government so that none of them encumbers the others."

House spokesman Rep Eseme Eyiboh (PDP, Akwa Ibom) on his part told Daily Trust yesterday, "The Executive brings an estimate to the legislature and we have the responsibility to increase or reduce based on need assessment. It is the Executive who owe us explanation on how they arrived at the initial proposal of N111 billion naira."

Asked what those "need assessments" were, Eyiboh said, "it was not something that can be talked about rhetorically, unless the full details of the budget is considered. For instance, when you are coming into the National Assembly you will see people from the Anti-bomb squad permanently based at the entrance with their facilities. Assuming that as at the time the budget was proposed this was not captured, it is natural that the budget will increase. There are a lot of security challenges in the country and when we look at the budget item by item, we will come to the conclusion as to why we arrived at that."

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This systematic looting of the Nigerian commonwealth shall not stand. These godless and callous individuals engaged in brazen daylight robbery of our national resources all under the deceptive pretext of legislative independence is unacceptable and a crime against the Nigerian people and State. This is illogical insanity and I urge all wellmeaning and battered hapless Nigerians to rise against this democratic travesty. The independence of the legislature cannot be determined only by cornering an obscene percentage of Nigeria's budget.