Onwuka Nzeshi 
A mild drama played out last Wednesday in one of the committee rooms of the National Assembly. The Senate Committee on Power grilled officials of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) on their proposals in the 2021 Appropriation Bill recently presented to both chambers of the National Assembly.
Managing Director of the REA, Ahmad Salijo, was on the hot seat as he struggled to defend the proposals of the agency before the lawmakers. A member of the committee raised the red flag when he discovered that a total of 20 rural electrification projects proposed for execution in the coming fiscal year, were cited in Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State.
It was also discovered that the said 20 projects had various bogus sums, allocated to them in the budget. In contrast, it was discovered that there were no similar concentration of projects in other Local Government Areas either within the North East region or any other geopolitical zone of Nigeria.
Curiously, it was also discovered that the Minister of Power, Alhaji Mamman Saleh, hails from Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State. Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Sen. Gabriel Suswam and his colleagues were livid with anger at their discoveries. They said the budget proposal was fraught with uneven distribution of minigrid power projects for rural communities.
Some invoked relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution to remind the REA boss of the need for the application of the principles of fairness equity and justice in the budgeting process. They came down hard on the Minister of Power by accusing him of abusing his oath of office. According to these lawmakers, the minister swore to do justice to all manner of people and not to allow his personal interests affect his official conduct and decision.
One of them nailed it thus: “He has by this (nepotistic conduct), clearly shown that he has allowed his personal interest to affect his official conduct and decision, and that is a very serious matter.” Indeed, it was a moment of truth and these legislators have sent a clear message to the minister. They have directed the REA boss to convey their displeasure to his boss, the minister.
When you point a finger...
As observers of parliamentary proceedings, one would expect that this would result in some significant alterations to the budget of the REA to reflect equity, fairness and the federal character principle. But don’t be shocked if nothing happens in that positive direction. Like the minister, these lawmakers are Nigerian politicians and one common thing that runs in their DNA, is self-interest.
Yes, they’ve raised an alarm and enunciated some valid points to buttress their case, but can we trust them to go the whole hog and right the wrongs?
The answer is blowing in the wind. They are part of a parliament that has consistently failed to check the nepotistic tendencies of the executive since their inauguration. In the last one year, the Senate of the 9th Assembly has not only failed to enforce checks and balances in its relationship with the executive, it has issued President Muhammadu Buhari an open cheque on every bill, every policy, every programme and on all political and career appointments.
They always affirm that the President means well and all that comes from him are well and good for Nigeria. But is that really so? How do appointments and other critical executive actions taken without regards to federal character, equity and fairness translate to good in a plural society like ours?
These parliamentarians have consistently looked the other way while Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) connived with the Federal Character Commission to subvert the due process of employment into the civil service. In return, the lawmakers have settled for job quotas allocated to them under the table for the benefit of their children and close relatives.
Even recent appointments in the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) were allegedly skewed in favour of cronies and proteges of those in the leadership of the parliament. So, as they point one accusing finger towards Saleh, four other fingers are pointing back at them. They might blow hot air now, but not many Nigerians will take them seriously. It is almost certain that all these objections will fizzle away if the minister accused of nepotism shows them what is in it for them.
A redistribution of some of these questionable projects to the local government areas and communities where these committee members hail from may just do the magic. Where are the Senators who threatened to bring down the roof over the job racket at one of the choice government agencies last year? It is obvious that the agitation to expose the rot died as soon as the aggrieved were pacified with their own job slots. In the end, all the politicians are on the same page and the masses on another page entirely.
Those in power easily reconcile their difference as soon as they achieve their personal goals. When they meet at the sharing table, they are united in the pursuit of personal interests. In that mood, the national interest and the welfare of the people take the back seat. In this land and clime, governance is all about those in positions of authority and nepotism, an integral part of the political culture.
The truth about our budget …
It is often said that the Appropriation Bill is about the single most important piece of legislation that comes before the National Assembly every year. The money bill, also called the budget, outlines the projected income and expenditure of the government for the coming fiscal year. Since the rebirth of democracy in 1999, successive sessions of the National Assembly have received and passed the annual budgets which were later assented to by the President, as the head of the executive arm of the government at the centre.
However, it is shocking that the structure of our budget has remained largely the same in the last two decades. It is a document without “form and void” having been haphazardly prepared without recourse to any development plan. If one were to pick up a copy of the 2019 Appropriation Bill and place it side by side with the 2020 and 2021 Appropriation Bills, one will discover that these documents are indeed the same except for slight variations in the amount of money allocated to the various items.
Every year the government budgets money for the same items. Buildings that were renovated the previous year get fresh allocations for their renovation; electricity generators, air conditioners, vehicles and spare parts purchased during the previous budget cycle are brought back into the fresh budget.
Furniture, cooking utensils, cutleries, computers, photocopiers and all their accessories which were procured in the previous year, are also rolled back to be purchased again. In addition, these items are usually duplicated and sometimes triplicated under different names and codes to create the impression that a new item had been introduced into the budget.
Besides all these anomalies, the national budget has also become an avenue for perpetrating official corruption. Sometime, some line items of expenditure are inserted into the budget not necessarily for them to be executed but as conduits to siphon money.
This is how some multimillion naira projects get into the national budget but have no specific location or timeline for execution and completion. In other instances, some projects perpetually bear the tag, “ongoing” so as to continue to receive annual allocations that would easily be creamed off by their sponsors without doing anything to advance those projects.
A neophyte in the parliament once confessed his confusion when he attended his first budget defence session and was confronted with some jargons such as manual excavators and aqua canopies, listed for purchase. He later learnt that manual excavators was another name for shovels and diggers while aqua canopies was the baptismal name for umbrellas. Those who crafted the budget inserted those exotic terminologies to justify the huge cost attached to them.
The damning verdict is that our budgets are not only bloated but full of frivolities. It has become one of the avenues to official graft. More often than not, the government proposes a million naira for what it could have done at the cost of a hundred thousand naira.
We are still budgeting as if we are still in the oil boom era of the early 1970s when Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it. It is high time we became realistic. No serious country runs its national budget the way we do here. The parliament must wake up to its responsibilities on the budget.
The budget for rural electricity should not be done according to the whims and caprices of the minister on the saddle but must be built into a long term plan to expand power generating and distribution facilities till every village in Nigeria is lighted up. It is not enough for lawmakers to thump their chests as those with the power of appropriation; they must walk the talk.
