Calabar-Lagos Rail Project that Was Never Listed, Triggers A Spat

Having gather all the information, Thisday  has taken time to explain the step by step process regarding the budget.  This information will give everyone a better understanding to what happened with the budget and the inclusion of the Lagos-Calabar rail project.  Read.


Act1, SCENE 1
On December 22, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari laid the much awaited 2016 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly. The record N6.07 trillion budget, the first by the Buhari administration, was highly anticipated with millions of Nigerians hoping that it would provide the elixir to the floundering economy.

Predicated on an oil benchmark of $38 per barrel, oil production of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day, and exchange rate of N197 to the dollar, the budget included revenue estimates of 3.86 trillion and a deficit of 2.22 trillion which the executive arm of government proposed would be funded by a combination of domestic and foreign borrowings of N1.84 trillion.

Hinging the budget on increased spending on critical infrastructure projects, the executive increased the capital expenditure portion of the budget from N557 billion in the 2015 budget to N1.8 trillion in the 2016 budget. Effectively, for the first time in years, capital expenditure was to represent 30 per cent of the total budget.

But despite the emphasis on infrastructure, one project that was never included by the executive was the Calabar-Lagos railway project.

ACT 1, SCENE 2
Following Buhari’s presentation of the budget, the first red flag on the 2016 Appropriation Bill was raised a few weeks later by the Senate. It declared that the bill had disappeared into thin air.
About 48 hours after the alarm raised over the “disappearance” of the budget, Buhari was to write to the National Assembly admitting that the budget had been withdrawn and an amended version presented to the National Assembly for proper legislative work to start on the budget.
Again, the amended version did not have a line item for the Calabar-Lagos railway project.

ACT 2, SCENE 1
But work on the amended budget that was submitted by the executive was to run into another hitch. At this juncture it was discovered that the 2016 Appropriation Bill was riddled with embarrassing errors, omissions and padding of the kind never witnessed before in Nigeria.
Given the apparent errors and discrepancies in the budget estimates, the National Assembly gave itself more time to work with the executive arm of government to clean up the budget in order to pass one that could stand the test of time and was implementable.

ACT 2, SCENE 2
It was at this stage that the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi decided to include the Calabar-Lagos rail project by presenting a supplementary budget from his ministry to the Senate Committee on Land Transport.

But in his “exuberance” to include this all-important project to the Senate committee, Amaechi, it was discovered, did so without the express approval of President Buhari.

ACT 2, SCENE 3
Acting in collusion with the Senate Committee of Land Transport led by Senator Gbenga Ashafa, and possibly its counterpart committee in the House of Representatives, N60 billion was set aside for the Calabar-Lagos rail project, and the proposal sent to the two Committees of Appropriation of the National Assembly.
But the two committees were not prepared to be parties to the inclusion of a supplementary budget that was never included in both the original and amended budgets presented by Buhari to the National Assembly.

Acting in accordance with the powers vested in the National Assembly by the 1999 Constitution on the power of appropriation, the two committees left out the Calabar-Lagos rail project from the 2016 budget, as was the intendment of the executive arm of government.

FINAL ACT
It was with this knowledge that the Senate yesterday discarded all vestiges of civility, warning the presidency to put paid to its “hide and seek game” with respect to the Appropriation Bill and stop engaging in what it described as “surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate in order to cover up its shortcomings”.

But sensing that it may have worn thin the patience of the National Assembly, the presidency was quick to clarify that Buhari did not reject the budget, stating that reports in this regard were unfounded.

The Senate, in a statement by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, said the executive lacked the moral high ground to sustain its persistent attacks against the National Assembly in view of the flaws which characterised the 2016 budget.

According to him, the National Assembly had to bend over backwards to produce a meaningful document out of the excessively flawed and chaotic versions of the budget proposals submitted to it by the president.

The Senate also accused the presidency of gross incompetence in the preparation of the budget, adding that the document was highly embarrassing and characterised by errors, omissions and inconsistencies, which it said the National Assembly helped it to clean up.

The parliament took exception to what it described as the unwarranted attitude of the presidency to set the public against the National Assembly, stressing that the power of appropriation rests with it.

The Senate also took a swipe at the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, whom it accused of orchestrating the latest allegations with respect to the alleged removal of the Calabar-Lagos rail project from the budget.
It described the minister’s antics as reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive and asked him to tender an unreserved apology for the allegations or resign.
The statement read: “While the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the National Assembly.

Thisday.