Hon Zakari Mohammed is the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs. He dismissed insinuations that the ongoing tussle with the executive by the House over slow pace of budget implementation was being driven by selfish agenda. He accused the finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of not telling Nigerians the whole truth regarding the budget implementation.
Excerpts: The comment by the Senate president David Mark that the controversy over budget implementation ought not to be seems to suggest that the House does not have the backing of the Senate on the matter, do you have a contrary opinion? I think you are getting the message of the Senate President very wrongly. We are on the same page. That is why when we took up the matter of budget implementation at the House, the Senate too followed. Since we came in as the 7th Assembly, whenever issues come up that are before the floor of the House, the Senate restrains.
If there is any at the Senate level too, we hold on likewise. There are a number of examples we can give. So, it’s one National Assembly. The minister of finance has apologized to the Senate on the matter, is the House expecting similar apology from her? This is not about individuals; I think it is about institutions. We believe there are appropriation Acts the president signed with his hands.
He brought it to the House. We know we were criticized with the manner in which we passed it. For once, let us have a workable budget. We are seven months down the line and the budget performance is quite abysmal. By our oversight functions, the chairmen of Appropriation and Works told us the budget doesn’t look realizable.
We didn’t want to wait till December before raising a dead horse. That approach was a wakeup call. We have an appropriation act. Why are we not getting funding for capital projects? There must be explanations. If she has shortfalls, she has to come back to the National Assembly. From our revenue generation agencies, we saw that we have money.
The problem is that it has not been appropriated. It cannot continue like that. If it continues in that trend, capital projects will not get funded and what is, therefore, the essence of a budget? From what she said, it is like the House did not get it right on the number of months the budget has been implemented before coming out to attack the executive, was it an oversight?
The issues are very clear. Some people somewhere are not doing their job. Rather than rationalizing it, I think people should take responsibility. That is what leadership is all about. She came out with a figure. From our own analysis, it is N404billion approved out of N1.3trillion. N324billion has been cashed back. We later discovered that out of N324billion cashed back, only N184billion is accessible.
That cannot represent 56 per cent. It is not possible. Let us get this arithmetic right. Let us not get dazzled away by semantics. It is our budget. It is the soul of the national. For us in the National Assembly, we cannot continue to allow things like these to happen. It is not about Okonjo Iweala or the President; it is about the workability of the document called the Appropriation Act. The earlier we get it right, the better for us. According to her, by September, 2013 budget will come.
What have we done with 2012? That is the problem. We cannot continue like this. That is why by the resolution of the House, we said we should go and take inventory of all the capital projects going on. By the time we get back from the break, the reports will be ready. It is meant to guide us. A typical example is the Lokoja-Abuja express way. It has been there since 1999. It doesn’t have a lifespan. Projects must have a lifespan. So, let us be sincere with ourselves. It was the same ministry that gave a conflicting figure during the subsidy debate. There must be a single talk. These explanations don’t add up.
These figures are not from my office; they are from the Ministry of Finance. We need to get these things right. We are not saying due process should not be followed in the way things are done. They are not purchases. It must go through a process. As far as we are concerned, we have been vindicated by the decisions taken so far. We shouldn’t wait until it is too late. There is still enough time for them to act. From the day of our resolution up till now, there have been improvements in the number of releases made. Some have called to say that the resolution is beginning to have effects.
The House has not sufficiently defended insinuations that its position was driven by some selfish motives, why are you people pretending not to be aware of these claims? We have actually said a lot. All the statements that have been issued are the positions of the House.
It is a matter of urgent national importance. To say that we are being driven by other interest apart from what we have is unfair. It is uncharitable. What other means do we have to redress these issues? Budget implementation is a key issue of governance. If the budget is not available, there is no reason for us being here or Mr. President being there.
That must be something you are driving at. At a time, it was becoming blackmail. I watched the Finance Minister on live television. She said that the slow implementation of the budget is as a result of the constituency projects which were not captured. It is just unfair. You don’t just say some things because you want to be favoured. We as a House, we have to be fair in what we say too.
We said the constituency projects take less than 10% of the capital budget. We gave an instance with the Federal Ministry of Works. Of the N147billion that is their capital expenditure, they’ve only been able to access N39billion. How much will that do in road projects? We all know that all these revenue generating agencies have surpassed their targets. It means somebody is not doing his/her job. We are not driven by any other process other than by the law for the Nigerian people. We have signed a legislative contract with the Nigerian people. We have spent a year and it is time to take stock in order to account for what we have been able to achieve.
How do you react to claims in some quarters that the House position is a demonstration of anger against President Jonathan for snubbing recent summon to explain growing insecurity in the country? What is the timeline between when we invited Mr. President and now? Surely, he is going to come. We know that his office is a very busy one and that aside from even coming to attend to us, he has other engagements. We should even be commended for that kind of move. If there is no security, there cannot be a president or the legislature. It is in our collective interest to ensure there is security of lives and properties in Nigeria.
The oneness of Nigeria is the basis for which we are all here. If anything happens to us as a country, then of course, these institutions will be threatened. No sane investor will carry his investment here when he cannot predict the safety net of his investment. Inviting Mr. President is our own way of telling the President to come and let’s interface.
Whether you like it or not, we are leaders in our right too representing certain people. If he cannot talk to Nigerians, he can talk through us so we can tell him how we feel. Our security challenges are not a one-man’s job. Could you give details of your claim that Okonjo-Iweala is the biggest beneficiary of constituency projects?
The areas where these projects are located, they are Nigerians. They are entitled to benefits. Somebody somewhere motivated it and we are aware that if she is about talking constituency projects, we are not contractors. We don’t bid for contracts. When budgets come, they should give us certain leverages. They are aware that as legislators, we have made certain commitments during our campaigns. Our needs are different.
We only ask for certain things. When the budget is passed, these projects will be passed to agencies. They will in turn pass them to contractors. They’ll mobilize to the locations and ensure those projects are done. Why I made that reference is that we are aware that there is a project in her vicinity which is worth N1.3billion. She put that in the budget herself. We are elected representatives.
Those are the issues. I am not being personal about them. She knows more than I do that capital projects all over the world drag the budget. By accepting that roads across the country are almost impassable don’t you think you are lending credence to the position of the opposition which has continued to say that PDP has failed Nigeria? I think I want to say that sincerely speaking, you don’t expect magic overtime, especially in a democratic setting.
You don’t expect magic overtime. The issues that have militated against those projects are the slow implementation of budget. That is why we want to break from the past. It is not a PDP thing. It is the fact that institutions are not empowered to work. Even if the PDP is not there tomorrow and another party takes over, those issues will always be there. Unless the institutions are strengthened, it will be difficult to do anything.
I disagree with the insinuation that the PDP has failed. We should rather focus on building strong institutions. There is this impression that the oversight responsibilities of the various committees of the National Assembly are not working and that, to a large extent, is causing the low implementation of budget, what is your take on that? I cannot speak for other Assemblies, but I can speak for the 7th Assembly. One of the things we want to do in this 7th Assembly is to strengthen our oversight functions.
Overtime, these oversight functions have been weakened in a way. It has become like a ritual. People don’t know that oversight is like the key component of our legislation. We are going to strengthen the oversight function in this 7th Assembly. Those oversight functions are coming up gradually. There must be checks. The executive shouldn’t see us as if we are being nosy.
Budget is very key to our existence. If we don’t have a budget, then it is just a black market economy. How do you respond to accusation that there the budget implementation controversy is another strategy by the House to cover up Farouk Lawan’s scandal? People have to be very sincere to themselves. If what we did with the Farouk case, the executive and the judiciary do that, corruption will be reduced to its barest minimum. There was an allegation on one of our ranking members.
As a House, we resolved that the member concerned must go and face the laws of the land. He has been stripped of the chairmanship of that committee and the standing Committee on Education which he chairs. We say the law should take its cause. It is not about me, it is about the institution.
Everybody will come and go, but the legislator will remain. Farouk Lawan is facing interrogation. We have not interfered. The EFCC is a creation of the National Assembly. We don’t prosecute. Fact-finding is what we do. It is misleading to say that the House is fighting somebody’s fight. No amount of blackmail or intimidation will stop us from carrying out our oversight function. Rather than address those issues, we should look inwards and correct those things.
Do you subscribe to views that the frosty relationship between the executive and the House started from day one when the House rejected the leadership imposed on them, that the executive is plotting ways of getting at the leadership of the chamber? Let me tell you one thing. When we came in, we saw a lot of things. We believe that the only way to achieve any meaningful development was to bury our party differences for the interest of Nigeria. It was clearly from a nationalistic point of view.
That was what informed the choice of Aminu Tambuwal. We believe that he has what it takes to take us to where we should be. We have no regret in the actions that we have taken. Rather than see it as a confrontation, we are just picking holes in the illegality. The President should be wary of the quality of things he takes from his advisers. At the end of the day, the bulk stops at his table. Nigerians voted for Goodluck Jonathan and not for any appointee. He must take responsibilities and open his thoughts wide. I empathize with him.
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