budget as it adjourned till February 17.
Members, who returned to the two chambers of the assembly on
Wednesday after Christmas and New Year holidays okayed the second
reading of N4.36tn in their respective chambers but referred further
deliberations on it to their committees on Finance and Appropriations.
Shortly after giving the task to the committees, the Deputy Senate
President, Ike Ekweremadu, and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, adjourned.
The action, it was learnt, was to enable members to go to their
respective states to galvanise support for respective political
parties ahead of the February 14 presidential election.
In the House where the action was first taken, members resolved that
their Joint Committee on Appropriations/Finance should invite the
Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Director-General
of the Budget Office of the Federation, Bright Okogu, for discussion
on a realistic oil benchmark for the budget.
The Committee on Appropriations is chaired by a Peoples Democratic
Party lawmaker, John Enoh, while an All Progressives Congress
member, Abdulmumin Jibrin, heads the Committee on Finance.
They collectively agreed that plummeting oil prices could only mean a
slash in the Federal Government proposed benchmark of $65 per barrel
of crude.
President Goodluck Jonathan officially submitted $65 per barrel as the
oil benchmark for the budget on December 17.
The $65 was a cut down from the $78 he initially proposed for the
budget in the first Medium Term Expenditure Framework sent to the
National Assembly for 2015-2017.
But, between December 17 and Wednesday, global oil prices further
crashed to around $46, causing anxiety in oil dependent countries,
including Nigeria.
The atmosphere in the chamber on Wednesday was devoid of the usual
tension and rowdiness associated with budget debates in the recent
past.
The passage of the budget for second reading received a unanimous
voice vote at the session, which was presided over by the Speaker, Mr.
Aminu Tambuwal.
House Majority Leader, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, who led the debate, said
the budget had a provision of N387.1bn for capital expenditure and
N2.6tn for recurrent expenditure.
She added that N411.8bn was budgeted for statutory transfers and
N943bn for debt servicing.
Earlier, members observed that government did not do enough to
diversify the economy.
Abimbola Daramola said, "They should have done a good homework
because annual budgets should not be omnibus replication of previous
ones."
Two other lawmakers, Joseph Kigbu and Ndudi Elumelu, suggested
that the capital expenditure should have been further slashed since
government might not be able to raise adequate money to fund projects
in 2015.
A member from Borno State, Mr. Mohammed Monguno, could not agree less,
saying, "The Federal Government has been professing the
diversification of the economy but this is not reflected in the
appropriation.
"With the discovery of shale oil and the falling price of crude oil,
there is a need to diversify the economy."
Tambuwal clarified that while the plenary stood adjourned, various
House committees would call meetings with Ministries, Departments and
Agencies of government for defence of their budget proposals.
Before the Senate also adjourned, members lamented gross fiscal
indiscipline by MDAs and vowed to carry out necessary legislative
activities to check them in the current fiscal year.
They also noted, among others, the sharing of billions of dollars in
the Excess Crude Account without the authorisation of the National
Assembly and the illegal spending of revenues generated by the MDAs
as some of the Executive excesses that must be curtailed.
The senators therefore resolved to ensure that all revenues
accruable to the federal agencies were captured and appropriated by
the National Assembly.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, in
his contribution, stressed the need for caution in the treatment of
the budget since no appropriation could be done without first
determining allocations to various sectors.
He said, "The budget cannot be looked at in a hurry. This is an
austerity period. Money should be generated. We also need to cut down
on cost of governance by blocking leakages.
"We need to review the earnings and spending of the MDAs while taking
into cognisance, the fact that the exchange rate of N165 to a dollar
and the oil benchmark of $65 per barrel, are no longer realistic."
Senator Abdul Ningi,who described the 2015 appropriation bill as a
budget of caution told his colleagues that the vote for capital
expenditure was less than 10 per cent.
--PUNCH
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