Lawmakers at daggers drawn over alleged budget padding

• Fears of possible change in leadership
• Principal officer fingered for fueling crisis

These certainly are not the best of times for members and particularly the leadership of the House of Representatives given the unfolding drama over the alleged padding of the 2016 Budget.

The seeming tranquil atmosphere, which had pervaded the chambers, just few days to its long vacation have caved in on the floor revealing the facade of a parliamentary comradeship among the members of the 8th Assembly in the House of Representatives. 

With the palpable atmosphere of acrimony currently permeating the House, National Assembly monitors are of the opinion that the strange spilling of alleged budget padding by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, his deputy, Sullaimon Yusuff Lasun and two others marks the beginning of intrigues in a House that is divided.

Just when Nigerians are beginning to gear up to savor the promises made by the 8th House of the National Assembly in their legislative agenda at inauguration, the parliament is once again enmeshed in another round of crisis that is threatening to tear the chamber apart. 

The latest being the sacking of the chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumuni Jibrin over alleged sundry misdemeanor whilst he superintended over the Committee.Recall that the Speaker recently stunned members of the chambers when he announced the decision of the leadership to sack Jibrin. Dogara who did not give an inkling of what was in the offing at the commencement of plenary on Wednesday, 20 July 2016, said Jibrin will be immediately replaced with Mustapha Dawaki Bala who represents Kudu/Warawa federal constituency of Kano state as Chairman.

Jibril grew unpopular with his colleagues when he was accused of voting about N4 billion in the 2016 appropriations for projects in his constituency alone.He was also accused of padding the 2016 fiscal document by allocating over 20 projects to his constituency without the consent of the members. Recently when the House debated the immunity clause for the National Assembly leadership, Jibrin’s colleagues who kept shouting at him, “ole”, “barawo”, and “thief” spontaneously booed him.

Specifically, the lawmaker who represents Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State, was said to have allegedly allocated to himself 22 projects worth N4.169 billion and scattered across five Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), of the Federal Government, including Ministries of Works, Agriculture, Water Resources, Women Affairs and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

It was learnt that the development was aside the N40 billion worth of projects, which the leadership of the Appropriations Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly shared among themselves without the knowledge of other members.The discovery was said to have irked many members of the House, and created an atmosphere of unease in the lower legislative chambers. Subsequently, there have been calls by a majority of the members for the removal of Jubril, once loyalist of the Speaker.

Barely 24 hours after his sack, Jibrin opened the can of worms against some of principal officers of the House, claiming particularly the Speaker, his deputy, Minority leader, Leo Ogor and the Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa allocated projects worth N60 billion to their respective constituencies.

He demanded that the quartet resign their positions as principal officers on the basis that they lacked the moral rectitude to remain in office, explaining that he resigned as chairman of the Appropriation Committee to free himself of alleged Dogara’s mischief and consistent blackmail against his person on the issue.

Femi Gbajabiamila

The four of them met and took that decision, in addition to billions of wasteful projects running over N20billion they allocated to their constituencies. My inability to admit into the budget almost 30billion personal requests from Mr. Speaker and the 3 other principal officers also became an issue. I wish I could but where will I get such money in a tight budget year like this? I have documented evidence to this effect. “

But other sources pointed accusing fingers in the direction of a principal officer who, they claimed, has been fanning the crisis with a view to taking over from Dogara.
Curiously, sources claimed that available documents showed how other principal officers, including its Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila benefitted from the Zonal Intervention Projects. Many have wondered why Jibrin, left out Gbajabiamila in listing the officers involved.

It was alleged that there were no fewer than 50 projects, worth billions of naira domiciled under the Ministry of Agriculture situated in his Surulere Federal Constituency and other parts of the country, including Niger State.

Among the projects, were construction of solar streetlights for Wards G.GIG 2, G3, G4, F1, F2, and 63 Surulere 1 federal constituency of Lagos state worth N200 million. Others include supply of 5 Toyota Hiace buses in Surulere 1 Federal Constituency in Lagos State worth 50 million each; supply and distribution of ICT equipment in Ward G, G1, G2, in Surulere federal constituency in Lagos State.

But Gbajabiamila’s aide, Mr. Smart Olanrewaju, disclosed yesterday that whatever his principal benefitted from the Constituency projects vote was within his right and not as a special favour from Jibrin’s Committee.

However, Ogor, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last week dismissed the claims, saying, “those are fabricated stories and the facts are in the budget. I think this is coming from somebody who is a little bit upset, who doesn’t know his left from his right. It is unfortunate but I don’t want to go into altercation with him.

“At the appropriate time, when we resume on the floor we will speak, but I can assure you that they are all bunch of lies and there is nothing in it. I am not going to waste my time responding to an issue I consider in consideration.“You can read the in between the lines, he has actually lost his committee. Why didn’t he make available these allegations all along? Those are the questions you need to answer.

“He was the one that addressed the issue of this budget and accused the Presidency and the executive in respect of issues that bothers on the budget. Today, he is singing a different tune, and I think he is good at singing different tunes anyway. So like I said I am not going to go into any altercation with somebody I consider not a serious person.

“I am not going to waste my time over that issue and what he has said are all lies and this kind of blackmail doesn’t work with the likes of Leo Ogor, so you see he is just wasting his time,” he said.

Similarly, members of the Gombe state caucus in the House of Representatives have decried the development, describing it as an “evil plot” by the embattled former Chairman of Appropriation in cohort with some persons outside the chambers to destabilize the parliament.

They have also called on Jibirin and every other persons or groups waging war against the peace and stability of the House to sheath their swords and leave the parliament to pursue its business of making laws for the good governance of Nigeria.

However, another set of lawmakers under the aegis of the ‘Transparency Group’ has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately launch a thorough investigation of the Speaker, Deputy-Speaker and other principal officers mentioned in the alleged padding. They insisted that Dogara, Lasun, the Chief Whip and Minority Leader, and Jibrin must be investigated by relevant external government agencies. 

“We want everyone involved to be investigated, be it a messenger, a typist in the budget office. Be it members of the Appropriations Committee, such individuals have to be identified for a holistic investigation into this, so that we don’t have the same problem with the 2017 Appropriation.” 

Spokesman of the group, Musa Soba (Kaduna-APC) revealed that already, about 113 signatures had been collected from lawmakers from the six geopolitical zones and across party lines with the view to compelling the Speaker to explain the noticed discrepancies in the budget. 

Keen watchers are curious that the alleged budget padding might be a precursor to the reemergence of banana peels in the National Assembly?With the seeming Ping-Pong affair arising from the allegations and counter allegations between Speaker Dogara and the erstwhile Chairman of the House Appropriation committee, Nigerians awaited the outcome on the floor of the chambers when the House resumes from its long vacation on Tuesday, September 13, 2016.