Senate: Presidency Smuggled ‘Fake’ Budget into N’Assembly

Making the revelation at the end of a two-hour closed-door session, Senate President Bukola Saraki announced that findings by the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee, which investigated the allegation of missing budget, showed that Enang swapped the document presented by Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 with a “fake” copy.

Accordingly, Saraki said the Senate resolved at the closed-door session to jettison the “fake” document submitted by Enang and concentrate only on the one presented by the president.

“We have received the report of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on investigations surrounding 2016 Appropriation Bill. Our finding is that Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President for National Assembly Matters printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought them to the Senate.

“We have discovered that what he brought is different from the version presented by Mr. President. We have resolved to consider only the version presented by Mr. President as soon as we receive soft copies of the original document from the executive,” Saraki said.

However, THISDAY reliably gathered yesterday that up to the time of filing this report, neither the Senate leadership nor the management of the institution had a copy of the original document presented by Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly last month.

A top National Assembly source disclosed to THISDAY that it was only one document that was presented to the entire National Assembly by the president and not one to each of its chamber as erroneously assumed in some quarters.

According to him, the norm is that once a budget is presented before the National Assembly, it goes straight to the office of the clerk of the National Assembly who will dispatch it to both the Senate clerk and House clerk.

The clerks of the two chambers would then make the documents available to the Appropriation Committees in both houses, which will in turn circulate copies among members.

The source told THISDAY yesterday that when Enang wanted to swap the original document, he attempted to reach the clerk of the Appropriation Committee on the phone but could not get him.

He then decided to call the acting clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Nelson Ayewoh, telling him that he had attempted to reach the Appropriation Committee’s clerk to collect a document from him.

Ayewoh, it was learnt, did not know that it was the budget document that Enang wanted to collect from the Appropriation Committee clerk when he accepted to call the latter, asking him to reach Enang who had wanted to speak with him.

Ayewoh was then said to have told the investigating committee that he did not know what Enang wanted to discuss with the Appropriation Committee clerk but only offered to show him respect by drawing his colleague’s attention to Enang’s phone call.
However, THISDAY was reliably informed that when Enang appeared before the committee, he denied communicating with Ayewoh and the clerk of the Appropriation Committee on the budget.

He was also said to have claimed that he never had their numbers.
Efforts by THISDAY to get Enang's side of the story were fruitless, as his staff told THISDAY that their principal had said he would not respond to any matter on the budget controversy.

According to his staff, Enang said the senators were his bosses and hence, would not want to join issues with them.
Also after yesterday’s plenary, Senate spokesman Sabi Abdullahi said having discovered that the “fake” copies of the budget were brought into the National Assembly, the Senate would discard the copies and await the soft copy of the budget from the presidency after which it would print it.

Abdullahi, however, insisted that the budget was not missing.
He said: “The report about a missing budget is not true. We don’t have a budget that is missing. You recall that the Senate President did inform Nigerians that there was an issue that a committee was asked to investigate.

“The investigation by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions was submitted at the executive session. It was a decision we took at the last executive session.

“Our findings were as follows: That Mr. President did lay the budget before a joint session of the National Assembly and thereafter, the Senate went on recess and upon resumption, copies of the document were produced by Senator Ita Enang, who is the SSA to the President for National Assembly Matters (Senate) and the copies were submitted to the Senate and House of Representatives.

“What we found out is that the document submitted by Senator Ita Enang, upon resumption, had some differences, discrepancies with what was originally laid by Mr. President at the joint sitting of the National Assembly.

“However, the Senate, in defence of its own integrity, will not work with what has not been laid on the floor of the National Assembly. We are constitutionally mandated and duty bound to consider only that budget that had been so laid by Mr. President.

“Right now, for reproduction, we are awaiting the soft copy of the original budget submitted so that the National Assembly can reproduce the copy itself. That is the only time we can have confidence in the document we want to work with.”

On his part, the Special Assistant to the President for National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Hon. Suleiman Kawu, insisted that the executive had no reason to secretly withdraw the 2016 budget proposal.

He said the president, at the joint session last month, did not present an empty box, but a summary of the budget, which is constitutional.
“He presented the summary of the budget – the general principles of the budget – which is discussed at plenary, is different from the nitty-gritty, which is what is discussed at the committee level. It is a technical issue. Each committee has the power to amend the proposal,” he said.

Speaking with THISDAY yesterday, Kawu said the executive had encouraged the National Assembly to make amendments to the budget, if necessary, particularly when considering the volatility of oil prices, without withdrawing the proposal.

“This notwithstanding, we still had no reason to withdraw the budget and if there was a need to do so, it must be done legally which means that the entire document must be withdrawn. But in this case, there was no need for that,” he said.

“When the MTEF was passed, we already knew the price of oil was not stable.  And that is why the budget also concentrates on non-oil revenue: solid minerals, agriculture, taxes and others... We did not withdraw the budget. Why would we? The claim that someone stole the budget – what would the person do with it?” Kawu asked.

Kawu also absolved his Senate counterpart, Senator Enang, of complicity in any act that could subject the National Assembly to ridicule or of withdrawing the budget.

“Buhari will be the last person to assign his agent to get involved in such illegality. What would be the reason for the alleged withdrawal of the budget by Enang? This is a hands-on legislator that knows the rule. To accuse him is unfair considering the cordial relationships between the executive and National Assembly,” he said.

He described the controversy as “mischief” within and outside the National Assembly.
“Some people do not want this government to succeed. They do not like what this government is doing, so they will do anything. It is very funny to say the budget is missing, very mischievous,” he added.

Also speaking on the budget controversy, the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, said the House would commence consideration of the budget proposal document presented to it by the president.
He said this against the backdrop of reports that there ware different versions of the budget in circulation among the lawmakers.
Namdas also debunked reports that the budget had been withdrawn.

“He (Buhari) came with the document and laid it on the table, and this is the document we would work on, as far as we are concerned as a House. By next week, we are commencing consideration of the document. Since I said our budget is not missing, nobody has withdrawn it,” he added.

However, after its announcement on the budget, the Senate during plenary yesterday summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to appear before it on Tuesday to explain while naira has continued to slide precipitously against the dollar at the parallel market.

The naira exchanged for N295 to the dollar in Lagos and for N305 to the dollar in Kano on Wednesday.
The steep decline of the local currency has been blamed on the central bank’s decision to stop its weekly sale of dollars to retail segment of the foreign exchange market.

Meanwhile, in its reaction to the controversy surrounding the Appropriation Bill, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against Buhari for various “constitutional breaches” including the recent alleged submission of two versions of the 2006 budget estimates.

Rising from a meeting of its National Working Committee (NWC) yesterday, the leadership of the opposition party charged the National Assembly to thoroughly investigate the shameful act, including the distortion and bandying of figures to accommodate the presidency’s personal interest and ensure that appropriate sanctions are meted to whoever had a hand in the dubious action that has brought embarrassment to the legislative body.

The party also asked the Ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Presidential Adviser on National Assembly (did not specify which of them) to resign, having failed to provide the much needed capacity in the management of the nation’s economy resulting in the embarrassing crash of the nation's currency to as low as N305 to the US dollar.

Also the party asked the governor of the CBN to resign for creating chaos in the management of the nation’s foreign exchange policy, an action that has caused confusion and uncertainty for investors.

In a statement signed by the acting National Chairman of PDP, Chief Uche Secondus, the party admonished the government to stop pretending that it knows what it’s doing, when feelers from the seat of power had shown clearly that Nigerians, by voting for the All Progressives Congress (APC), had discovered that they boarded a “one chance bus” (local parlance for pulling the wool over someone’s eyes).

“We sympathise with Nigerians who are seriously undergoing terrible hardship because of the now obvious inept leadership of the APC despite the promise of one naira to a dollar.

“What hope can a government that allows its currency to break a 43-year-old record crashing to over N300 to one dollar, offer and yet does not show it has clear focus of what to do?” the opposition party demanded to know.

PDP accused the APC-led government of resorting to the violation of people’s rights in the name of fighting corruption, rather than addressing the very grievous national issues created by its lack of capacity to govern.

It noted in particular the continued detention of its spokesperson, Chief Olisa Metuh, for nearly 10 days, in clear breach of his fundamental human rights, and reiterated its call for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release him unconditionally with immediate effect.

PDP also called on all lovers of democracy, especially the international community, to note the fact that the “rule of law and respect for citizens rights, essential ingredients of civil liberty, had taken flight in Nigeria under President Buhari’s watch”.

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