-political zones with a view to asking Nigerians to make input into 2013 budget. Already, to ensure the timely passage of the yearly budget, the Senate has given the Executive September 2012 deadline for the submission of the 2013 budget.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Ahmed Maccido, disclosed this yesterday at the National Assembly.

Also, the House of Representatives has approved for second reading, a bill which seeks to further alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and give financial autonomy to state Houses of Assembly in the country.

Consequently, the chamber, presided over by the Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, yesterday referred the proposed law to its Special Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review for further legislative action.

On the 2013 budget, Maccido said yesterday: “We are going to push the Executive so much that the 2013 budget must get to us, the National Assembly, latest by September so that we can work right through October, November and by December, the country gets a new budget.

“Three months, I believe, are enough for us to work on the budget and return it to the Executive for assent. That is our plan for the 2013 budget and we do hope things would go according to plan.

“For 2013, Nigerians should be rest assured that at the committee level, we have made arrangements, going from point A to point B. Everyday, we would monitor monies that have been appropriated and make sure that they are being spent judiciously...

“There’s been a lull in the sense that we came in and there was no provision for the programme in the 2011 budget. The inclusive budgeting process whereby the National Assembly interacted with the public stopped with the Sixth National Assembly but we intend to re-activate that soon.

“We have to start a new one altogether. In fact, we just got approval for that particular programme in the 2012 budget.

“By October, we will commence the process. We are going out by the first week of October to bring together all stakeholders in Nigeria, where we will sit down, discuss and deliberate on their input.

“We will get their views on the 2012 budget and hear what they expect in the 2013 budget. We will start that by October”, he said.

Reacting to the admonition by the President of the Senate, David Mark, that committees should take their oversight functions seriously, Maccido said: “We are going to monitor releases to MDAs, whether there is cash backing for those releases.

“We have a very weak constitution on oversight but this time around, we intend to be much more vigorous in that direction.

“Truly, there has been very ineffective oversight of the MDAs and all the Senate President said is true; our inefficiency in oversight brings about corruption and ineptitude on the part of the Executive because we don’t report on them. It brings about so many ills.”

In 2010, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 was first altered. And in the process of that first alteration, attempts were made to give financial autonomy to the National Assembly, the state Houses of Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) became independent.

Leading the debate on the bill at the House of Representatives yesterday, Deputy Minority Leader, Abdulrahman Suleiman Kawu, had during his submission pointed out that for any democratic setting to thrive, the three arms of government must be independent of each other, especially in their financial dealings.

Contributing to the debate, the Deputy Majority Leader, Leo Ogor, argued that the financial independence of state Houses of Assembly was not negotiable.

House Minority Whip, Samson Osagie, lamented that while the Federal legislature was operating with a great deal of independence, the state Assemblies had become mere puppets in the hands of the state chief executives.

Also debating the Bill, House Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, lamented that what we have at the state level was an anomaly which must be corrected, adding: “We cannot have democracy at the national level and have autocracy at the state level.”

Other lawmakers who contributed in support of the Bill include the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, Orker Jev, Abdu Musa, Nnenna Okeji, Nado Karibo, Emmanuel Jime, Ndudi Elumelu, Bukar Goni, Peace Nnaji, Babatunde Adewale, Daniel Reyneiju, Patrick Ikhariale and Sani Kalgo.

In his ruling, Speaker Tambuwal cautioned against erroneous perception of the Bill in some quarters as a legislation targeted at individuals in the country. “We should not be having semblance of democracy, rather we should be seen to be practising democracy,” he said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution has promised to be guided by the interest and demands of Nigerians on the review of the 1999 Constitution and will neither restrict its work to certain provisions nor will it shy away from areas considered contentious.

The committee has also scheduled a retreat for its members for the end of May to enable it outline its work plan and review memoranda received from the public so far.



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Author of this article: From John-Abba Ogbodo and Terhemba Daka, Abuja


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