The escalating crisis between the Legislature and the Executive may slow down the economy or bring it to its knees, BusinessDay analysis show.
With the Senate having less than a month to sit before proceeding on its annual six weeks vacation, economic plans as earlier enumerated by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo while signing the 2017 budget may also suffer some setbacks.
The crisis between the two arms of government also calls to question the existence and workings of a committee supposedly set up by the Federal Executive Council to mediate with the National Assembly and sort out the differences to allow for a good working relationship between the two arms of government.
While assenting to the 2017 appropriation, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said that to shelve the controversies on the spending plan which was passed six months into the year, the two arms of government had reached a consensus. To make up for some of the discrepancies noticed in the document approved by the National Assembly, he said the
executive will be returning to the legislature for an upward review of the budget by way of virement.
On the other hand the executive arm of government after indicating that it will present the 2018 budget to the National Assembly in October, is yet to prepare or submit the Medium Term Framework for 2018 for it to be worked on, while the legislature may proceed on its annual vacation at the end of this month.
Industry watchers say the needless impasse between the two arms of government may also stall the implementation of the 2017 appropriation.
While the current stand-off between the Senate and the Executive is in specific reference to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s comment on the confirmation of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, there are said to be other issues left unsettled between the two arms of government.
In April this year, the Acting President an interview said the executive had the right to appoint and maintain the candidacy of a candidate despite the judgement of the Senate.
“It is up to the Senate to make their judgment, and it is up to us to say what we want to do. If our candidate is rejected, we can re-present him. No law says we can’t re-present him. And again, there is the other argument, whether or not we need to present him for confirmation and that’s a compelling argument from Femi Falana,” he had said responding to questions on retaining Magu in Acting Capacity in spite of the recommendation and stance of the senate.
The Acting President’s statement had not gone well with the senate which had insisted that they made their decision on Magu based on a security report submitted by the Department of States Services and his performance at the screening.
Meanwhile, in March this year the Federal Executive Council was said to have set up a committee to interface with the legislative arm of government to resolve outstanding issues between them. The announcement was made by the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, who said the executive was concerned about the frosty relationship between the two arms of government.
Prior to this, the face-off between the Executive and Legislative arms of government took a turn for the worse when the later failed to confirm the appointment of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, for a second time.
The senate had expected the President to immediately replace Magu which he is still yet to do. The senate had in return refused to screen the president’s nominees for Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the Independent Electoral
Commission but had later backtracked.
In his remarks before assenting to the budget, Osinbajo said the Executive were of the view that the changes and alterations made to the appropriation document fundamentally affected some of the government’s priority programmes and would make implementation extremely difficult and in some cases impossible.
“In sum, the engagements yielded acceptable results. The most important being that the leadership of the National Assembly has given us a commitment that the National Assembly will re-instate the budgetary allocations for all the important executive projects, such as the railway standard gauge projects, the Mambilla Power Project, the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway etc. which they had reduced to fund some of the new projects they introduced.
“This re-instatement will be by way of an application for virement by the Executive which they have agreed will be expeditiously considered and approved by the National Assembly” he said adding that “It is as a result of that understanding and the outcome of our detailed engagements that we feel able to sign the 2017 Appropriations Bill
into law today” Osinbajo said.
The N7.441trillion 2017 budget, christened Budget of Growth and Recovery was approved by the National Assembly on 11th May, with a raise of N143billion from N7.298trillion to N7.441trillion. The budget was finally submitted to the Presidency on the 19th of May, 2017 and assented to by the Acting President on the 12th of June.
The Presidential Liaison to the Senate, Ita Enang, who spoke on a live radio programme agreed that the impasse between the two arms of government is hinged each trying to assert its constitutional powers.
He also said there are already efforts being made to resolve the crisis between the two arms of government.
“The most important thing here is that the two parties are talking about the constitution and the issue revolves around what are the constitutional powers of each person.
“The legislature is insisting that it has the constitutional right to do this and the executive also has a position” he said.
Analysts are already expressing worry that while this is going on, the friction may affect the presentation of the virulent, the MTEF and other decisions that may require the input of the national assembly.
