In a situation of this nature where the budgeting process and the people’s mandate have been abused, societal demands are varied and none should be promoted to the exclusion of the other. The first reaction of normal human beings when the laws, processes, norms and accepted standards of conduct of a society have been violated is to demand a pound of flesh. That is to demand that the offenders be punished. This is in consideration of the definition of law as the command of the sovereign which must be obeyed at the risk of sanctions. But before we get to the stage of trials and punishment, there must be a clear establishment of facts as to what exactly happened, the role of the principal actors and how they exploited the system. This will allow the public to have information that will enable them to make meaningful contributions to a foreclosure process.
The second reaction is a demand for the principal officers involved in this mess to own up, confess and apologise to Nigerians for their unbecoming conduct. This second point seems to have been stalled with the “above the law” attitude of the principal officers of House of Representatives. Without taking sides to the raging feud, specific allegations made against the leadership by the former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Abdulmumini Jibrin, have been left unanswered. The House leadership is trying to use a general traverse of denials against specific allegations. This cannot stand in law and logical analysis. The allegations are specific and need factual responses to successfully rebut them. It is at this second phase that we may be able to explore the possibilities of compensation to society for the misdeeds of the legislators. Whether there is a framework to get this compensation or what exactly the offenders have that can compensate society is a moot point that may be further interrogated.
The third demand after getting the details of how the system was raped is to use the information to learn lessons, plug the loopholes and devise measures to guarantee non-repetition of the fraud. Essentially, it is about getting the offenders and the society to say “never again”. The system must not be so weak as to allow this manner of fraud to be repeated. Thus, this provides an opportunity for a comprehensive review of the entire appropriation system and ensuring that it is re-wired to protect the public interest.
It is also at this point that the party and constituencies that presented these candidates who are now elected representatives will draw the right lessons. For the political party, a process that throws up only credible candidates needs to evolve. For the constituents, they may consider recalling the representative because he has let them down and rubbed their nose in the mud. For the Independent National Electoral Commission and lawmakers in general, the campaign finance component of this scandal should crystallise. Legislators just got elected after spending humungous sums of money to run elections and this is their first budget approval opportunity. What happened is just one of the ways they plan to recoup huge election expenditure. It is bound to happen again if the right lessons are not learnt.
For the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, to think that the corruption allegation already out in the public domain is a family matter which they can settle internally by placing a gag order on the feuding parties is an attempt to lock the stable after the horses have escaped. This is not only unconscionable but a frontal attack on democratic tenets and norms. No party or institution has a right under Nigerian law to stop the exercise of the right to free expression especially when such a right has not violated any right of other persons or in any way subverted state security.
Beyond the executive-legislative feud and budget padding, the Nigerian budget has been perennially subjected to abuses by all manner of actors. First, there is no agency specific budget preparation template. It is just a general template where every ministry regardless of need gets money for uniforms and clothing, security equipment, budget preparation, refreshment and meals and welfare. It is a budget preparation process that fails to justify priorities – to align them with societal demands and needs. Let us take a look at a typical Nigerian scenario. In the 2016 federal budget, the Ministry of Education’s allocations for capital projects were N3,189,939,304, N1,079,385,820, N1,426,090,446 and N13,704,050,160 to universities, colleges of education, polytechnics and secondary schools respectively. The capital allocation is an average of N83.945 million per university. Colleges of education and technology got an average of N46.929 million each. Polytechnics will receive an average of N67.909 million each. Surprisingly, secondary schools will receive an average of N131.769 million each. This is not the best way to prioritise capital expenditure because the needs of tertiary institutions far outweigh those of secondary schools. With the dire need for infrastructure and facilities, these tertiary educational institutions are evidently under-funded. Pray, who was responsible for this skewed allocation and what interest did he intend to serve? Surely, not the public interest!
At the end of the day, it is the budget of a syndicate, by a syndicate and for a syndicate. It is not about the people and their needs. The process is complicated by the lack of transparency and openness associated with budgeting in Nigeria. The country is undergoing economic recession but the leaders from the executive to the legislature do not reflect the recession in their lifestyle which is funded by the treasury. They continue to enjoy large constitutional and statutorily guaranteed expenditure without caring about the poverty in the land. The votes of the legislature, National Judicial Council and other agencies enjoying statutory transfers are just lump sum un-disaggregated figures. Despite the promise of the leadership of the legislature to give Nigerians the details of the N115bn allocation in 2016, the said leadership has failed, neglected and refused to make the details available to Nigerians. And 180 million Nigerians seem so helpless.
The House of Representatives budget fiasco is now part of our history which we cannot re-write. The challenge is on how we take advantage of the facts and distortions disclosed to re-programme the budgeting process. We should not only suffer from the negatives. It is time to take away something from the challenge in terms of the opportunities for reform which it has provided. This is where civil society needs to organise and muster sufficient support among the populace for this reform to happen. The executive and legislature including the anti-corruption agencies cannot bring about the much needed reform without societal pressure.
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