No more half implementation of budget, Tambuwal tells Jonathan

Posted by admin House, Legislature Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal yesterday reminded the executive that the only way to prove to Nigerians that government is alive to its responsibilities is to implement the 2012 budget fully.

Making a closing remark after President Goodluck Jonathan delivered the 2012 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly, Tambuwal who received thunderous applause warned that the 1999 Constitution as amended had no place for selective implementation of budget.

“There was no better signal that a government is alive to its responsibility than through its strict adherence to its own budget proposal.
“Listening to you just now Mr. President, we are moved with a feeling of a new spirit to remove the annual budget presentation from the realm of sheer rhetoric’s to one of a comprehensive presentation of a workable document.
“I must, however, note that the budget proposal is again coming rather late in the day.”

Tambuwal assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would do its best to ensure that work is completed on the budget within reasonable time so that implementation could start early.
Collectively, the Speaker promised to break the jinx of low budget implementation, moreso that the executive has made the completion of all on-going projects a critical aspect of the 2012 budget.
“The sheer number of uncompleted and mostly abandoned projects and programmes in this country boggles the mind. It is the single most obvious sign of shoddy government implementation of the national budget over the years.
“Let me emphasize that selective budget implementation has no place in our constitution and the legislature shall not abdicate its responsibility in ensuring full budget implementation through the instrumentality of oversight.

He regretted that Nigeria was facing some of the toughest challenges in her history, such as daunting security and economic problems and our people look up to the lawmakers for assurance on the condition that “we understand the immensity of the task; that we know how to tackle the problems; that we are, in fact, tackling the problems.”
He hoped that as a resilient people, there was no doubt that Nigeria would weather the storm, reminding his colleagues in the House and in the Senate that “Nigerians will believe our deeds and not our words.”
He assured the President, and indeed all Nigerians, that the Legislature was fully committed to the primary duty of government of security of lives and property of the citizens and their welfare as entrenched under the Fundamental Objective and Directive Principles of State Policy.

“So long as the Executive is acting pursuant to this, you can rest assured of our full support. Mr. President, on behalf of the entire membership of the National Assembly, I thank you for your visit here today and hope that the 2012 budget will lead to the revitalization of our economy and repositioning of the country on the path of true development.”
Most members in their reactions concurred with the speech of the Speaker, saying that it represented their opinion, as failure to implement budget was the bane of development in the past years.

Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa said that the Speaker spoke the minds of the House.
“What we need to make the budget meaningful is the political will to implement it and the Speaker has said it all. Let the Executive do the right thing and on our parts, we shall intensify our oversight duties to monitor the implementation.”
Hon Opeyemi Bamidele also praised the Speaker’s boldness to say the truth about the problems of budgeting in the country.

What is left for the National Assembly to do now is for the amendment of Sections 81 and 82 of the 1999 constitution which gave the president power to present the budget to National Assembly at his will, and also spend six months into new fiscal year without a budget,” he said.
Hon Eseme Eyiboh said that the budget speech of the President reflected a commitment to do things differently and positively.
From what the Speaker said, Eyiboh said, it was a pointer that on the issue of budget implementation, it is no more business as usual.

-Sunwp_posts