Ohuabunwa: My First Bill in Senate Would be on Budget Reform
Mao Ohuabunwa, the senator-elect for Abia North senatorial district, was a two-term member of the House of Representatives. He tells Ahamefula Ogbu, in this interview, that the laws governing the country’s budgeting system have a lot of lacunas that are d
What are you taking to the senate as an old hand in legislative affairs? I am going to the National Assembly not as a green horn but as a two-time member and I was a principal officer. So one basic thing I am taking to the place is experience; experience is important. Also as a standing rule at the Senate or House, ranking has become an issue; it becomes a platform maybe for you to get a position that will enhance your ability either to perform or to assist your constituents. My primary aim is an opportunity that I can leverage on to assist my constituents, especially, in the area of empowerment, in the area of job creation, employment and appointments. Like I told people, Abia State had no Pro-Chancellor of any federal university, none until a few weeks back when they just appointed the present chairman of Abia State Council of Traditional rulers, I think, Chancellor of the University of Abuja. In my senatorial area, we are well endowed. If you talk about academicians, intellectuals, business moguls, we are many in Abia North. We have not gotten our fair share of appointments at the federal level. That is one area that I want to use my experience to leverage on if we can get appointments, jobs and so on, so that we can have some peace.
What is your take on the question of federal presence in your constituency?
I will use my experience to help the physical infrastructural development of my constituency. I give you an example, if we have time I will take you to the local government headquarters where I come from and you would wonder whether we have done anything wrong to the federal government, because it is a federal road that is in a state of total disrepair. You need someone who can use legislative experience to get federal government’s attention on that road. What I keep telling people is that first and foremost, in democracy and in a democratic system of government, any job that is to be done has to be appropriated; it must be in the Appropriation Act. For me, if you have a good legislator as representative, that is one area that he can perform to ensure your project are captured in the appropriation bill, which automatically becomes the Appropriation Act the executive can execute. Without it being in the Appropriation Act, no matter your connections, nothing can be done. That is just about road and I am using the Arochukwu-Ohafia road as a point because it is in a total state of disrepair.
You know most parts of Abia North are sitting under erosion, is it Abam, is it Isiukwuato, is it Ohafia, Bende? There is a road today that I passed during my campaigns, I will caption it Abia North Road. If you are on the express road from Umunneochi to Okigwe going to Umuahia, you branch off at Okigwe going to Uturu where you have the state university, which is also part of my constituency because Uturu is in Isiukwuato Local government, from there till you join Akara, you see that the road has been eaten up. Even the university is under threat. So you find out that there is one palliative work NDDC is doing at Umunneochi, but it is nothing to write home about. So I want to use my position to bring government’s attention to look into those problems because if nothing is done now, it can become a natural disaster, God forbid.
You were one of the stars of the House of Representatives and people are going to be looking out for you in the Senate, what are the bills you would like to quickly push?
One thing I would like to do, whether it will come as a bill, is looking at our budget. We have lost so much through budgeting, in the sense that our budget now is like a ritual, it has no meaning. This is May ending and the budget is not yet in place. People forget that budgeting is not only about financial allocation, what about the fiscal policy that should come at the beginning of every year, just like the budget statement? The man who wants to import rice, for example, would know that this year, the government said the tariff is going to be one per cent, so you plan. But now people can no longer plan. We only look at budget as financial allocation. Again, that bill will also contain timing for the appropriation bill; the appropriation bill must come to the National Assembly by so time and it should not be in the National Assembly more than one or two months. Right now, there is no timing in terms of law, it is only the House that will give you like two or three weeks to report back, when you are not through they will extend it. It is better we work with time so that we will revert back to the state that at the beginning of every year, the president will make a budget speech so you know what to expect so that you, as a businessman, can plan ahead. That is a bill I will want to pursue because that is why our economy is the way it is. The constitution gives the president power to spend up to six months allocation based on the previous year’s budget, so they are relaxed and can spend without supervision; unless where it exceeds six months before the executive will become jittery because after that they will close shop and cannot spend. During that six months, you cannot even oversight them, it is like an open cheque because you can only oversight based on what you have budgeted. It gives the executive freedom and that is why we are having all those leakages of NNPC owing this and the other parastatal owing that, from what they are supposed to remit. It is something that has bothered me.
How would you feel if this bill you are talking so passionately about is passed into law and it is not implemented?
No, it will be implemented unless you say if it does not become an Act. If it becomes an Act, especially this one, it is implementable because you can pass a law that is not implementable, which is like passing a law without an implementation clause and to that extent, as far as I am concerned, it is null and void. There must be enforcement and punishment clause; if after so and so nothing happens then this happens. I believe that this bill will enjoy popular support because we all suffer it, we know everybody wants it done; even the executive will be happy. If you remember, before I left the House, there was a time we said it, but it was not as a law, that budget must come by July or so and that by November, must get it out. I don’t know whether we tried it once and relaxed, but if you make it a law, it will be implemented. I don’t know why we should not have a budget in by June/July. There is a budget office, as soon as we finish one budget, you start another one and things move, it is doable.
Your opponents have headed to the tribunal to contest your victory at the polls; do you have any fears about the outcome?
If you have been following the Nigerian system, tribunal has always been part of it, especially those of us who are in PDP. If you are in PDP and you are going for election, make up your mind that there are three steps that you will have keen contests. One is at the primaries; it has always been keenly contested. Next one is the general elections, and the third one is the tribunal. That is why this is the first time you are seeing a president in this country, even in Africa, conceding defeat. It is a new thing and maybe we will begin to imbibe it. It is an unfortunate thing, especially in my own part of this country. The North is better; when this happens, once you win them, only few will go to court, but here, it is like part of the process and everybody will want to go to the tribunal. I know that two of those who contested with me have gone to the tribunal but I know I won clearly. There are five local governments and I won in all so I don’t know the basis of their contest.
It is their right to go to the tribunal but I know I won this election and one joy I have is that what I contested for is senate and Abia North people will always tell you the calibre of persons they want to vote for. I have carved my niche in the parliament. They know those who contested with me; you can’t deceive the people and it is not a propaganda thing. If you look at those who contested with me, do an election 20 times, they know the calibre and pedigree of those they want to vote for. In Abia North, people voted for me overwhelmingly and the difference is clear both in the votes cast and in other things. I have no problems with that, so they have the right to go to the tribunal.