The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has attacked a National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, Bolaji Ahmed Tinubu, saying that the former Lagos
Governor was pursuing fascist agenda to control all levels of power in Nigeria.
Dogara, in a statement signed by
his Media Aide, Turaki Hassan, and made available on Tuesday,
said that only the ignorant with dubious academic certificates will say the
maker of a document has padded the document that only he can constitutionally
make.
Dogara was reacting to an earlier
statement by Tinubu, where he accused Senate President, Bukola Saraki and
Dogara of having padded the country’s budget for four years.
Dogara’s statement added, “We
have noted the statement issued on April 21, 2019 by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
wherein he stated his reasons for sponsoring or supporting some aspirants to
various leadership positions in the forthcoming 9th Assembly. Ordinarily, this
would not have elicited any response from His Excellency, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara, as Asiwaju is entitled to
sponsor those he believes will have no choice but answer to his dog whistles
anytime he blows same in his capacity as the self acclaimed National Leader of
his party.
“If Asiwaju had confined his
intervention to stubborn facts, this response would not have been necessary.
He, however, used the opportunity to manufacture falsehoods and paint a
non-existing picture of the stewardship of Mr Speaker and the work of the 8th
House of Representatives under his watch. It is therefore, incumbent on us to
set the records straight for posterity.
“Asiwaju Tinubu accused the
leadership of the National Assembly of stymieing ‘the APC legislative
initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious reactionary and self interested
legislation on the nation.’
“He said further: ‘Just look at
the way Saraki and Dogara and their ilk hijacked the Budget Process these past
four years. National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly
sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them”.
“He continues ‘Even worse, they
cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefited the average
person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we
should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the
National Assembly.’
“He generously used the usual
unexplained words like installing a progressive leadership and so on.
“We do not expect Asiwaju Tinubu
to dwell on brazen mendacity, much less murder facts and decorum in his rabid
bid to justify his patently clear fascist agenda of controlling all levers of
power in Nigeria. Asiwaju Tinubu’s nocturnal agenda has no parallel in the
history of any democracy and it is more loathsome when he throws caution to the
winds and maligns government officials who are doing a yeoman’s job of
stabilising the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, even in spite of
political differences.
“It is on record that the Rt.
Hon. Speaker has done more to stabilize this government more than Asiwaju
Tinubu and his ilk whose stock in trade is scheming, manipulation and
subversion especially when they feel they cannot be caught. When the history of
Buhari’s administration is written by those who know the truth of what really
transpired in the last four years, Asiwaju’s pretentious loyalty to President
Buhari will then be exposed. We won’t say more but no matter how long it may
last, the truth will one day overtake lies. Perhaps, Asiwaju is still bitter
about the leadership contest for Speakership of the 8th Assembly, even though
the actors have moved on culminating in Speaker Dogara magnanimously
facilitating the appointment of his opponent in the race and Tinubu’s protege
as House Majority leader.
“The chief cause of delay in
enacting the budget is the persistent refusal or neglect of the Executive to
present it in good time.
“For the records, in the last
four years, there was no urgency or plan by the Executive to achieve a January
to December budget cycle. For the avoidance of doubt, we will show the dates
the Budget estimates were submitted by the Executive in the last four years
below.
2016 Budget was submitted on
December 22, 2015, exactly nine days to the end of the year.
2017 Budget submitted on December
14,2016, just 17 days to the end of the year.
2018 Budget was presented on
November 7, 2017, the earliest even though it also fell short of the 90 days
stipulated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
2019 budget was presented on
December 19, 2018 exactly 12 days to the end of the year.
“As if the late or delayed
submission of budget estimates wasn’t enough, in most cases, Ministers and
heads of agencies contributed to the so-called delay by consistently refusing
to appear before National Assembly Standing Committees to defend their budget
proposals in line with the provision of the Law. At some point, the leadership
of the National Assembly had to take up the issue with the President who
advised his Ministers to honour legislative invitations to defend their
budgets.
”What Nigerians don’t know is
that the Executive, through the various Ministries, continued to propose
additional projects to be included in the 2018 budget even as at April and May
of 2018 which further delayed the passage of the 2018 budget. These were
communicated officially and if anyone is in doubt, we will exhibit the letters
with the dates they were written and received. In any case, the National
Assembly inserted a clause in the Appropriation Bill consistent with S.318 of
the Constitution which allowed the Budget to last for 12 months after Mr
President’s Assent. This enabled the Executive to spend more of the capital
component of the Budget as it still had 12 months protected by law.
“As an activist legislature, the
National Assembly effected an amendment to S. 81(1) of the Constitution to
compel Mr President to present the Budget estimates not later than 90 days to
the end of a financial year in order to solve this problem but unfortunately,
very unfortunately, Mr President declined assent to the bill which was passed
by both the National Assembly and over 2/3rds of the State Assemblies.
“The National Assembly made a
further attempt to make the Budget process much better by improving the
institutional capacity of the Parliament to process and pass National budgets
by passing the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO)
Establishment Bill into law. It was loosely modelled after the American
Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Again, Mr President declined assent to the
Bill.
“It is important to emphasize
that the National Assembly is not a Rubber Stamp Parliament and reserves the
right, working cooperatively with the Executive to interrogate projects
unilaterally inserted by the Executive branch without the input of or
consultation with Parliament. The legislature cannot be accused of padding a
Budget it has unquestionable constitutional power to review
“The Budget is a law and the
Executive does not make laws. Therefore, it’s only the ignorant and those who
hold dubious academic certificates that say the maker of a document has padded
the document that only he can constitutionally make. In the words of his
lordship, Hon Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High court, in suit
No.FHC/ABJ/CS/259/2014 delivered on March 9, 2016, ‘the National Assembly was
not created by drafters of the Constitution and imbued with the powers to
receive ‘budget estimates’ which the first defendant is constitutionally
empowered to prepare and lay before it, as a rubber stamp parliament. The whole
essence of the budget estimates being required to be laid before Parliament is
to enable it, being the Assembly of the representatives of the people, to
debate the said budget proposals and to make its own well informed legislative
inputs into it.’
“The parliamentarians are
representatives of the Nigerian people and you don’t expect them to rubber
stamp budgets that are heavily skewed and lopsided against most sections of the
country. It is their responsibility to ensure equitable and even distribution
of capital projects across all the nooks and crannies of the country, if the
Executive fails to do so. In any case, it is false to state that legislative
intervention in the Budget Process is to benefit the legislators and not their
constituencies.
“We challenge Asiwaju Tinubu to
prove otherwise. He should also show in what way the 8th Assembly acted
differently from other Assemblies of the past to warrant the kind of language
used. In any case, all the aspirants to the Senate Presidency and Speakership
he is sponsoring are majority leaders in the 8th Assembly and took part in the
Budget Process that he made the chief basis of his crude attack. This proves
beyond doubt the hypocrisy of Asiwaju’s stated reasons for supporting his
candidates.
“He should find better reasons
other than the lies being peddled about the Budget and obstructing government
business. Asiwaju shouldn’t take better informed Nigerians for fools.
Otherwise, when he sought to take control of the 8th Senate and 8th House in
2015, was it because of any Budget Saraki and Dogara had delayed or pet
projects they had inserted into any Budget before 2015? Asiwaju must come clean
on this matter. He should let Nigerians know why he wants to install both the
Senate President, the Speaker and leadership of the 9th Assembly. He may yet
win the support of some of them if he comes clean on this matter.
“The 8th National Assembly is on
record to have supported Mr President’s requests on critical issues of
governance. We backed him by Resolution on the issue of fuel subsidy, we backed
him on the National Minimum wage, even though we were more sympathetic to
workers’ rights. In security matters, we never cut any proposal from Mr
President save our refusal to rubber stamp a clear constitutional overreach of
spending $1 billion in arms purchase without appropriation. We have passed more
Bills than any Assembly before us including Bills that are helping the
government improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria, and there were times
we passed Bills within 2 legislative days. Is Tinubu genuinely ignorant of all
these?
“We challenge Asiwaju Tinubu to
list out the Bills he claimed were not passed by the National Assembly. The oil
and gas or petroleum sector is the most important and critical sector of our
economy which accounts for over 70 percent of our earnings, the Executive
didn’t forward a single Bill to the National Assembly to reform and reposition
the sector in the last four years even when repeatedly urged to do so by Mr
Speaker in his first year in office. The lawmakers waited in vain and had to
take the bold initiative of crafting a Bill – Petroleum Industry Governance
Bill (PGIB) among others, passed it in record time and transmitted same to Mr
President for assent. This Bill was vetoed without an alternative Legal
framework proposed by the Executive. Did Asiwaju miss this also?
“Asiwaju Tinubu should mention
the so-called bills the Executive sent to the National Assembly and were
delayed to show he is a man of honour or forever keep his peace.
“Could someone also challenge
Asiwaju to list all the “ noxious reactionary and self interested legislation
on the nation”? Can he name the bills that are reactionary and not in the
national interest? Is this how wayward lust for power blinds the reasoning of
people we should ordinarily respect? Is it not most unfair, unpatriotic and
wicked for Asiwaju Tinubu to have resorted to factoids in promoting his known
fascist agenda which he mistakenly thinks he is keeping secret.
“Finally, we advise Asiwaju
Tinubu to be circumspect in his use of language. In this case, he spoke as a
spokesperson of depravity. Our reaction must therefore be seen as a provoked
counter-punch. Any one can descend into the gutter if he so wishes but no one
has a monopoly of gutter language. We won’t run an adult day care centre
anymore on matters like this.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
A right word for the gullible fool. His end is nigh.
ReplyDelete