Magu’s rejection, 2017 budget and other matters 

One thing Senate President Bukola Saraki will be remembered for in the Eighth Senate is his ability to spring surprises on the last day of legislative sitting before embarking on recess.

On July 21 this year, which was the last day of sitting before embarking on annual recess, Senate President Bukola Saraki, gave what was termed ‘Political Tsunami’ by some political observers when he announced the reshuffling of the leadership of the Senate standing committees.

The announcement saw known critics of the Senate President like Kabiru Marafa and Remi Tinubu getting juicy committees, while other committee chairmen in juicy panels whose loyalty were in doubt, lost their positions and became ‘floor members’.

Thursday last week, which was also the last day of legislative sitting, also witnessed the announcement of another major political Tsunami: the rejection of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC).

In fact, a section of the media was so confident of the police officer’s confirmation that it carried a front page story: “Senate Bows to Pressure, Set to Confirm Magu EFCC Chairman”. This is one of the demerits of speculative journalism. Sometimes what happens could be a complete contrast of what you speculate as a reporter.

Although details of the security report, upon which the confirmation of the EFCC boss was rejected was not made public, I gathered from a ranking senator that the document contained corruption allegations involving Magu’s ownership of properties, violation of financial rules and regulations as well as colluding with corrupt individuals.

Proponents of his rejection have likened his continued stay as EFCC boss to ‘corruption fighting corruption’. To them, if the President could throw his weight behind the raid of judges’ homes and asked them to step aside pending the conclusion of their trial, then the moral burden is on him to appoint people above board.

Some senators have also taken to social media to exonerate themselves from the Senate decision. One of them is Shehu Sani, Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. In his Facebook post 24 hours after the rejection, he wrote: “Magu is doing a good job as the Boss of the EFCC. All that is needed is the rule of law and fundamental human rights elements which need to be strongly observed by the Commission, rule of law remains the most potent weapon in the fight against corruption. I remained respectfully bound by the majority position of the Senate on the issue, but wish to categorically and unambiguously state that I’m personally impressed with his performance”.

Frankly, I am at sea with the distinguished senator’s reaction because he seems to be neither here nor there; at best he is playing to the gallery. On one hand, he attest to the fact that Magu is doing a nice job as EFCC boss. On the other hand, he respects the decision of the Senate. Has he not heard of standing out from the crowd even if it means standing alone?

The budget presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the National Assembly may have come and gone but beyond the figures and statistics, the President painstakingly explained why the budget presentation was delayed by four hours. Some of us were at the National Assembly as early as 10am and had to wait for seven excruciating hours before the much awaited budget was presented.

Before acknowledging protocol, the President apologised for arriving late, admitting that he used the nation’s Presidential Jet – which flew him to Gambia to convince the country’s embattled dictator Yahya Jammeh to step aside – as Molue (Mass transit for less the less privileged). Our President said he had to use our jet to carry the Presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone from their respective countries and dropped them after the meeting.

Although attention was on the record-breaking N7.298trillion 2017 budget, the event assumed a new dimension when the President told lawmakers who listened with rapt attention that next year’s budget would be pegged on an Exchange Rate of N305 to a United States dollar. This did not go down well with legislators, as they murmured for about one minute to express their displeasure. This is not unconnected with the fact that at the debate on the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), most senators described the proposal as unrealistic, as our currency is about N500 to a US dollar at the parallel market.

A mild drama also ensued when the Senate Chief Whip Sola Adeyeye went to the table where the President had laid a box that contained the fiscal document, carried and handed it over to his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa.

Apparently, this was to avoid the scenario of last year where the 2016 budget was later declared missing in the upper chamber and a Search Committee was constituted.

However, this development did not go down well with one of the Sergeant-At-Arms who immediately conferred with the Clerk of the House of Representatives before retrieving the document from Doguwa and returned it to the table. The document was immediately handed over to the Clerk after the event. The Presidency is expected to mass-produce copies to all 469 federal legislators.

One thing that fascinates me about budget presentation is the fact it is the only event where the President stands while addressing lawmakers, while the Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives sit while talking.

Meanwhile, the fence-mending between the Executive and the Legislature, explains why the upper legislative chamber has given expeditious screening and confirmation of the nominees of President Buhari, which include Supreme Court Justices; Commissioners of the National Population Commission; Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC); Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governing Board members of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC); Chairmen and members of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); Commissioner of National Population Commission (NPC) amongst others.

In the same token, the 2016 budgets of most federal agencies were recently considered since their submission by Buhari five months ago. They include: the budgets of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), earlier rejected by the upper chamber; Nigerian Shippers Council, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), National Maritime Authority; Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, National Business and Technical Education Board and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure.

Others are: Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Raw Material Research and Development Council, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), National Insurance Commission, Federal Housing Authority and Federal Mortgage Bank.

Senate resumes on January 10, 2017 when the issue of rejection of Magu will occupy front burner.

 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE