Being an extract of Text Delivered by Femi Gbajabiamila, (Leader of Opposition, House of Representatives) at the Progressive Governors’/Legislators/Civil Society Organizations Roundtable on 24 th of March, 2014 at Barcelona Hotel, Wuse 2, Abuja.
First, it is a misunderstanding of representative democracy for anyone to straightjacket or limit the role of legislators to lawmaking. Whilst the core responsibility of a lawmaker can be said to be lawmaking, there are tangential ancillary or if you like consequential responsibilities attached to that role. One of such is the attraction of federal presence to one’s constituency. This is done all over the world albeit with different names such as earmarks or pork barrel legislation. The pertinent question that needs to be asked is how does a legislator attract federal presence to his or her constituency or state without constituency projects? We must remember that during campaigns and thereafter, it is the legislator that the constituents extract electoral promises from. It is them they complain to or call when certain things e.g. hospitals, classrooms, electricity, water etc are required in their constituencies. They don’t call the ministers of the relevant ministry, neither do they call Mr. President, who in turn cannot know the needs of my constituency better than me if at all he knows their needs. No doubt without the ability or capacity to influence these projects the legislator is being set up for failure when its time for re-election. Ironically, the unelected minister and his special assistants and P.As are able to influence projects in the budget which they ultimately use to campaign during elections against the hapless legislator. What did you do for us in the last 4 years as a legislator is a phrase all too familiar to many lawmakers and trust me the people are not talking about what laws did you pass for us.
On the second misconception about legislators being given money to execute projects, I believe this story was planted by the Ministries and of course perpetuated by the Presidency when they know full well it is not true. All that simply happens is a legislator during the budget process identifies certain needs in his constituency, puts it in the budget and the relevant ministry awards and executes the project. Lets face it how can I have the power to give you almost 5 trillion Naira to spend wherever you want and not have the ability or power to include just 40million for my own people. What is the sense or equity in that?
For a budget process to be seamless, the relationship of the two arms of government have to be symbiotic and cooperative so long as such is done in the national interest. That has to be the starting point or approach.
source: http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/press-releases/budget-and-budgeting-process-in-national-assembly/

Misleading topic.
Mynd44 somebody is doing wayo wayo here

shuuuuuu!

how is it misleading. I think Nigerians don't even know the function of their representative s. I will advise you to read through and learn.

" Lets face it how can I have the power to
give you almost 5 trillion Naira to spend wherever you want and
not have the ability or power to include just 40million for my own
people. What is the sense or equity in that?"

Mr Femi, this is common sense....The big question is, Is it Legal If No, then Dogara and his cohorts will pay for their crime

adioolayi:
" Lets face it how can I have the power to
give you almost 5 trillion Naira to spend wherever you want and
not have the ability or power to include just 40million for my own
people. What is the sense or equity in that?"

Mr Femi, this is common sense....The big question is, Is it Legal If No, then Dogara and his cohorts will pay for their crime

How can including projects duly reviewed by the house, signed by the president become an illegal action. I think dogara should just sue that jibrin guy so that we can have clarification and interpretation of the law.

Sammiejokes:

How can including projects duly reviewed by the house, signed by the president become an illegal action. I think dogara should just sue that jibrin guy so that we can have clarification and interpretation of the law.

That's the point.....are they allowed under law to prepare Budget I only think they can vet and review amount apportioned to each budget not INCLUDE A PROJECT....that's not their job

adioolayi:


That's the point.....are they allowed under law to prepare Budget I only think they can vet and review amount apportioned to each budget not INCLUDE A PROJECT....that's not their job

you making some valid point. let me ho dust my public finance book, seems I have read something similar before.

adioolayi:
" Lets face it how can I have the power to
give you almost 5 trillion Naira to spend wherever you want and
not have the ability or power to include just 40million for my own
people. What is the sense or equity in that?"

Mr Femi, this is common sense....The big question is, Is it Legal If No, then Dogara and his cohorts will pay for their crime

Are you that gullible? Asking one of the culprit in a case to tell you of his action is legal, why not employ your constitution, sophisticated indeed.

Now you are asking Dogora to go, while Femi is accused of same offence.

adioolayi:


That's the point.....are they allowed under law to prepare Budget I only think they can vet and review amount apportioned to each budget not INCLUDE A PROJECT....that's not their job

They have the constitutional power to add or remove certain things, is one of oversight function of the legislative arm of the government,if not... Why does the budget go through the house?

“Section 80 (4) on the other hand, which confers on the legislature absolute power of control over public funds, states that: “No money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.
“The word Manner confers absolute legislative discretion.

adioolayi:


That's the point.....are they allowed under law to prepare Budget I only think they can vet and review amount apportioned to each budget not INCLUDE A PROJECT....that's not their job

They're only offence is called Padding, defined as defrauding by adding false items to (an expenses claim or bill).

kernel504:


They're only offence is called Padding, defined as defrauding by adding false items to (an expenses claim or bill).

A budget is not an expense,claim,bill but an estimate. if the ministries release fund for fictitious or non existing project or the project was never carried out, then you can use the word fraud or padding.

if this discuss no enter front page for us to hear peoples thought then i give up on nairaland. have seen irrelevant topics like see my brothers WAEC result on front page.

Where are his Afonja brothers who were ready to kill just to defend him. Brownies and double standard.

Sammiejokes:
“Section 80 (4) on the other hand, which confers on the legislature absolute power of control over public funds, states that: “No money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.
“The word Manner confers absolute legislative discretion.

Don't conflate "National assembly" with individuals elected into the national assembly. Legislative discretion is only valid when the decision is made according to the standing rules of the house, not according to the whims of individual legislators because they are ranking officers. Femi does not have the right to allocate =N= 40 million to his constituency, the national assembly does!

What you people don't understand is that constitutionally, it is not illegal...

You send the budget to the budget committee set up by the Senate to review and make amendments, and they did by allocation some projects to their constituencies.l, which is not really bad if not for the bad intentions that followed it...

Like allocating 1b for a borehole and so on...

But in the real sense, it's not really illegal.

I think the govt shld look into this and just stop them from doing so..

AgentOfAllah:


Don't conflate "National assembly" with individuals elected into the national assembly. Legislative discretion is only valid when the decision is made according to the standing rules of the house, not according to the whims of individual legislators because they are ranking officers. Femi does not have the right to allocate =N= 40 million to his constituency, the national assembly does!

is national assembly that has the right to allocate made up of ghosts, and for your information, the executive was not sleeping when the president use several months reviewing before signing.

Sammiejokes:

A budget is not an expense,claim,bill but an estimate. if the ministries release fund for fictitious or non existing project or the project was never carried out, then you can use the word fraud or padding.

So if an individual(s) adds false items into the fiscal year plan of a nation, which will be funded with tax payers money is legal?
Example buying a jeep that cost N5 million for N30 million.
Are you saying if a man is caught trying to perpetrate evil, he should be exonerated since he's not completed his assignment?

kernel504:


So if an individual(s) adds false items into the fiscal year plan of a nation, which will be funded with tax payers money is legal?

can you then substantiate what is the false item added by dogara to the budget. Take the case to the moon no court will find him guilty, so long the project has not been funded and it has been proved he did not execute the project. what jibrin should do is to give us evidence of bribery for allocation of projects to dogara's constituency.

Let us stop deceiving ourselves, budget padding is illegal.

it is never legal for an individual or a few to insert projects for themselves without the knowledge of the Presidency.

Ideally, after submission of budget proposal, officers of the Executives are invited to explain more to various committees (budget defence), they will be asked why they aren't doing "so so and so" and the other committees may recommend to the appropriation committee to appropriate so and so for a particular project without ADDING their own. The job of the Appropriation Committee is to appropriate the logical amount of fund per project and not to allocate choice project to themselves. The power to determine projects lies with the Executive, this hasn't changed.

Mr Femi and co should stop being half smart and resign immediately.

Sammiejokes:

is national assembly that has the right to allocate made up of ghosts, and for your information, the executive was not sleeping when the president use several months reviewing before signing.

I mentioned that there are standard procedures to be followed. Being a ranking officer in the national assembly does not confer the right of budget manipulation on you. If you don't understand that there are procedures to be followed, you may as well argue that the police have the right to shoot whoever they please because they have a gun.

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that the budget was padded by individual members, without the approval of the national assembly according to established procedures. This is where the criminality is, not in the right of the national assembly to manipulate the budget.

kernel504:


They have the constitutional power to add or remove certain things, is one of oversight function of the legislative arm of the government,if not... Why does the budget go through the house?

Can you quote that part of the constitution that expressly state that they can add and also cite any precedent in court?

Noted

This op must be very very on osogbo weed for posting wrong information and date with an authentic source. Idiot

Thief



It's legal if they actually use it for what it's meant for, but if not it's capital fraud

And dey said dey are beta dan d PDP... Imagine if dis had being from a PDP reps. Well d party will settle it and decide if it's corruption or not. Awon oshi

Once again, elected people coming up with different & excuses to cover up corruption. Something they promised us we will never see again. The painful part is that even some of the masses who elected them will even help to defend them.

God help our nation, lest we give up on ourselves.

During obasanjo and yar'adua there was no problem on our exchange rate like this. Why,

The two Government truly practiced floats of currency...i.e no restriction of dollar or other currency by monetary system ( CBN and Commercial Bank's) .

Any foreign investors can come to Nigeria, and then call on the outlet outside Nigeria for Money, if the Money Dollar, should have been given the customer in Dollar instead of Naira,they would sell to beuru de change and the existence of dollar will determine it's price in the circulation.

You made policy that allow Govt official to embezle public fund in dollar, and let the so call dollar scarce in the circulation. i believe every transaction made from US or other country are being transferred to Nigeria in dollar and the money is being diverted by our corrupt politicians.

Up to this moment, the dollar is still being diverted. Cos you made this easy for corrupt politicians.

This is the most reason you are the cause of hardship Nigerians are going through now. Expecially in terms of exchange rate.

They are always united in corruption up there... why we are always disunited in defending them down here..

This is nothing but a pure show of esprit de corps by Femi. When did it become the business of the National Assembly to prepare a budget for the nation? Femi is a lawyer; it would have helped his argument if he had cited sections of the constitution that give the legislators such right. This clever by half move won't pacify angry Nigerians....
If Nigeria were a country where politicians owned up to their misdemeanors, these men would have long ceased to be in office.

He is right stealing is never corruption just as padding is not corruption. Those are technically different things. However, are they good? The answer is NO!