Why budget padding has been a perennial crisis ( 3)

Continued from yesterday

KEEPING that in mind, and being familiar with President Tinubu’s leadership style of always prioritising matters that need urgent solutions and not tackling all issues in one fell swoop, one is quite optimistic that in due course of time, after stabilising the economy by reducing food inflation triggered by the removal of subsidies on petrol and naira, which is a more pressing challenge, he would be embarking on the noble mission of ensuring that the three branches of government, in the practice of democracy, remain in their respective lanes as opposed to encroaching on each other’s duties which budget padding approximates. In fact, at this critical juncture during which NASS is embarking on a review of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which commenced on February 14, with a 45- member committee comprising senators and members of the House of Representatives, and given that President Tinubu has recently committed to restructuring our country, one is of the conviction that we do not have to practice the American- style presidential system of governance hook, line, and sinker. Rather, we can have a hybrid between the parliamentary system which we inherited from the British colonialists who granted us independence in 1960 and the current presidential system which we adopted in 1978, apparently without exhaustively truly debating the concept which is currently turning out to be too expensive. As has been argued vigorously by those who want our country to return to the parliamentary system of governance, it is the fact that we have a highly expensive NASS to sustain at a huge financial cost, with senators taking home a monthly salary of a whopping N15m and members of the House of Representatives receiving N10m salary as alleged by ex- president Obasanjo in 2016, is one of the major reasons that the recurrent expenditure in our national budget consistently takes the elephant size, leaving an ant size for capital projects. As part of the solution to the crisis of budget padding, our legislators should look into how the need for them to be part of the delivery of democracy dividends by getting directly involved in the implementation of constituency projects can be incorporated into the nation’s statutes book that is currently being reviewed. That is because legislators are the ones, apart from presidential and governorship candidates, that mainly campaign and make promises to members of their constituents during their quest for public office. That is one way that their quest to also be involved in project implementation can be legitimised to suit our peculiar circumstances. Now, some critics may argue that legislators would abuse such a privilege, and my counterpoint would be that we should leave them to the judgment of members of their constituents who would be privy to the information about constituency projects allocated to their homestead and under the purview of their representatives - senators and House of Representative members. While, they are reviewing the constitution, they should also consider taking another look at the proposal to incorporate our traditional rulers into the governmental system which was jettisoned during the last constitution review. The fact that part of the constituency funds set aside by a senator in the 2024 budget is for disbursement to traditional rulers in his constituent validates their critical role in governance which our country has been missing by not assigning the traditional institution a role in government. Based on experience from the past, as leaders at the grassroots level, involvement of traditional rulers in governance would help in enhancing security at the community level which is currently in shambles. Finally, it seems to me that the alarm raised by Senator Abdul Ningi about budget padding is a symptom of a deeper malaise. It is not a mere happenstance that he blew the whistle via BBC Hausa and not English language channels like NTA, AIT, Channels TV, or Arise News. It is my considered opinion that President Tinubu should look beyond the surface appearance of the budget padding imbroglio to decipher or ferret out the underlying issues besetting leaders in our political ecosystem to the extent that fault lines are being created, as reflected by the resurrection of the Southern Senators Forum now to be led by Senator Tokunbo Abiru as a counterpoise to the Northern Senators Forum. That is addition to northern and southern governors forum. If one does not already exist, a forum of house of representatives representing the northern versus one for southern Nigeria may soon be birthed. Ideally, there should be no such thing as northern senators or southern senators; rather, there should be senators of the federal republic of Nigeria. I would like to reiterate my fervent call that we should strive to always emphasize what binds us as a nation and discountenance what divides us. On that note, our politicians should accept the fact that the time for politicking is over. It is now time to focus on good governance to enable the critical mass of Nigerians currently wallowing in misery due to the prevailing socioeconomic hardships to be pulled out of the economic doldrums in which they are currently mired. That ought to be the priority right now irrespective of party, region, religion, or tribe affiliations. For instance, as the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas rages, the opposition leader in that country, Yair Lapid, has teamed up with President Benjamin Netanyahu, both of them working together in the war room fighting for what they believe is in the best interest of their country. Similarly, Hamas, Fatah, or any other political party in Gaza, West Bank, or entire Palestine, and even the entire Arab world, have subsumed their political differences to fight the war against Israel shoulder to shoulder until it is won or lost. By any standard of measure, Nigeria is at war. Given the number of lives lost to outlaws and bandits daily, weekly, monthly, and annually, the level of insecurity in Nigeria qualifies our country to be categorised as being in a war situation according to the adopted United Nations, UN parameters. So, all politicians should resolve to wage war against poverty and lack of progress which are fueling religious insurgency, banditry, and secessionism currently plaguing our country. It is after that war is won that we can go back to our political trenches.

Concluded.

Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, democracy advocate, development strategist, wrote from Lagos.