A Budget Historian and Analyst, Dr. Tunji Ogunyemi, has blamed the Executive arm of government and the Nigerian constitution for the delay in the passage of the 2018 appropriation bill by the National Assembly.
The budget, which was presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 7, 2017, was only passed by the Federal lawmakers penultimate Wednesday, six months after they received the draft.
But speaking in Osogbo, Osun State, Ogunyemi, who is a lecturer at the Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, blamed President Buhari for presenting the budget late to the National Assembly.
According to him, the budget ought to have got to the legislature earlier than November.
He added that the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, which he described as faulty, was another major contributor to the delay in the passage of the budget.
Ogunyemi said Buhari acted under Section 81 of the Nigerian Constitution to present the budget late, adding that the section stipulates that the President can submit the budget at “any time.”
The budget historian also took a swipe at ministers and heads of agencies, who refused to defend their revenue profiles before the National Assembly, despite marching orders given by President Buhari.
The don, therefore, asked Buhari to sanction the ministers and parastatals for failing to defend their budgets, saying they intentionally wanted to hide the truth about what they earned.
The historian noted that if the lawmakers had failed to pass the budget into law before late next month, the nation would have experienced financial and economic disasters because payment of salaries and other financial transactions would have been stalled in line with the dictates of the constitution.
He said, “The blames lie at the doorsteps of the Executive and the Nigerian constitution. Section 81 says the President shall submit the estimates of the budget anytime. Our constitution is fundamentally problematic. It shouldn’t be at any time. It should be specific like what operates in other countries like the United States of America.
“It’s morally reprehensible for President Buhari to have submitted the budget late. If the National Assembly had failed to pass the budget before June 30, it’s expected the finances of the country should be shut down. This means that workers would not be paid salaries and the economy would be at a standstill. Anything otherwise would be illegal.
“With the manner this constitution was submitted, Nigeria has broken a moral code. In 2003, we had a combative President, who also submitted the budget late. For this reason, the National Assembly passed it into law after six month, but it was illegally backdated.”
The university don added, “Most of the time, we have been running our country by default, rather than by design, and it’s very unfortunate. The President should not just order ministers and agencies to appear for the defence of their budgets. He should sanction them because they refused to appear before the National Assembly; not to give marching orders. The level of compliance to defend budget or present revenue profile has been abysmal.”
