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Ahead of their resumption from the Christmas and New Year holidays in January, the Senate and the House of Representatives have been urged to thoroughly scrutinise next year’s N47.9 trillion federal budget to check leakages, duplication of projects and frivolous requests by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Leaders of some major civil society organisations (CSOs) who made this call also challenged the federal lawmakers to put in place a legislative framework that would stop the practice of having two budgets running concurrently.
The CSOs also charged the legislators to alleviate the pains of Nigerians through their oversight of the executive arm of government.
The CSOs further appealed to the lawmakers to focus on the controversial tax bills before it and to start the electoral reform process.
LEADERSHIP Weekend reports that about 541 MDAs are expected to appear before the various committees of the National Assembly for their budget defence early next year.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend, the executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal-Ibrahim Musa-Rafsanjani, told the House to look at the 2025 budget passionately on resumption to proper allocation of resources to sectors that would engender development.
He said, “Basically, the expectation is that they will focus on the budget. They have to look at this budget passionately. We cannot continue to have this feature of budgeting for the purpose of allocating money to areas that do not have any effect in terms of the economy in moving the nation forward. So, it is expected that the lawmakers should look at the areas of duplications, waste and areas that might create room for corruption, to block those leakages.
“I think the National Assembly should also do something about this concurrent budget that the federal government and National Assembly are illegally operating. You cannot be operating two budgets at the same time.
“So, there must be clarity on this; you cannot just have a budget that you are supposed to be financing and then a budget that is ongoing, which you have extended it six months, and then a current budget that was passed and you want them to be running concurrently.
“So, it is expected that the National Assembly should develop a better framework that will stop this practice.
“Second, the National Assembly should look at the state of the nation, especially the ongoing hunger and poverty that is holding Nigerians. Unfortunately, the president has taken a stance that he does not really care or has any regret over the conditions that some of his policies or programmes have put Nigerians.
He said he doesn’t believe in price control but we know all over the world what the government does; even the capitalist economies have that control.
“So, it is expected that the National Assembly should intervene or to create a legislative framework to reduce the sufferings that Nigerians are going through by ensuring that they block leakages, and expose corruption in various sectors.”
He further urged the National Assembly to ensure a robust legislative engagement, including public hearing, in processing the contentious tax bills.
The CISLAC boss also asked the legislators to focus on issues of development, peace and stability of the nation as well as local government autonomy in the constitutional amendment process.
He went on: “Electoral reform is one of the key things, especially as 2027 will soon come. So, before 2027, we should have all the amendments required to ensure that we have free, fair and credible elections that put confidence in Nigerians and the international community that our electoral framework is not kind of created to give room for manipulation, for fraud and absence of electoral integrity.”
On the issue of local government, he charged the National Assembly to amend the constitution to ensure the necessary autonomy.
“The Supreme Court has given judgement and that is neither here nor there because the federal government is still paying state governors money rather than paying the local governments. So, the lawmakers should look at the impediments that we have and amend the constitution to enable the local governments have their own autonomy,” Musa-Rafsanjani added.
For his part, Armsfree Ajanaku, executive director of the Grassroots Centre for Rights and Civic Orientation, urged the House to move beyond the perfunctory and superficial consideration of the 2025 budget, with the objective of removing wasteful items that undermine the government’s repeated call on citizens to tighten their belts.
He called on lawmakers to carry out proper oversight of the budget process to ensure fiscal discipline and to encourage efforts to deliver quality governance to Nigerians. He added that MDAs, which have repetitive items padded in their budgets, must be made to withdraw them.
Ajanaku further urged the National Assembly (NASS) to settle the issue of local government autonomy, which had been reaffirmed in the Supreme Court judgment of July 2024, by guaranteeing the sanctity and credibility of elections in the ongoing constitution amendment efforts.
“The issue of overbearing state governors treating the third tier of government like mere appendages has to be addressed.
“As representatives of the people, we call on the lawmakers to ensure 2025 is not business as usual and the way they can show this is to pressure the executive to demonstrate prudence and fiscal discipline in all budgetary priorities,” he said.
Ajanaku also corroborated Awwal Rajsanjani’s call for electoral reforms to ensure the sanctity of the peoples’ votes, saying many aspects of the Justice Uwais Report should be adopted and put in the constitution.
The House had adjourned on December 19, 2024 plenary amid unfinished legislative business and pending issues requiring urgent attention when it resumes in the second week of next year.
Among these are the 2025 budget (Appropriation Bill) and Tax Reform Bills now before the National Assembly, and Constitutional Amendment and electoral reform bills.
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