by Eze Eluchie,
When after
one of their several nocturnal meetings, a group of ruling party State
Governors, hiding under the pretext of the ‘Nigeria Governors Forum’ (NGF), an ultra-constitutional
arrangement unknown to the Nigerian constitution, announced that State
Governors had decided to approve that the princely sum of One Billion Dollars
(US$ 1,000,000,000) be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue of the
Federation for the purpose of prosecuting the ‘war against terrorism/Boko Haram,
discerning Nigerians and members of the National Assembly had in one voice
condemned such move as clearly unconstitutional and unprecedented in the checkered history of Nigeria.
Federal and
State legislators and informed Nigerians had made it explicitly clear to the
said Governors that they lacked the powers to, by fiat, give away monies
belonging to their various States to the Federal Government to expend for
whatsoever purposes. In the same vein, the Federal Government was reminded that
it could not of its own volition, without appropriation by the National
Assembly, expend public funds. The illegitimate nature of the US$1 Billion ‘security
gift to the Federal government’ was further brought to the fore by the staunch
denial of any involvement whatsoever in such a clandestine arrangement by the
Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, who categorically asserted, and rightfully
so, that granting such authority to expend funds to the Federal Government was
inimical to the spirit and intendments of the Nigerian constitution.
An integral
aspect of the Presidential System of government is an inbuilt system of checks
and balances which ensures that no single arm of government (amongst the three
arms, to wit: the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary) becomes over
domineering and develops dictatorial mannerisms. The check systems serve to maintain
a balance in the polity and mutual confidence amongst, on the one hand, the
various arms of government and on the other between the arms of government and
the civil population.
In the light
of the foregoing and in view of explicit provisions in Section 80 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which makes it compulsory that appropriation
by the Legislature be first obtained prior to any funds being expended by the government,
it was thus with consternation and shock that Nigerians were carelessly informed
via reports emanating from officials of the Presidency, that President Muhammadu
Buhari, had of his own volition, without recourse to or any request being made
or approval obtained from the National Assembly, withdrawn sums in excess of
Four Hundred and Sixty Million United States Dollars (US$ 460+million) purportedly
for the purchase of some military equipment from the United States.
Withdrawal of
funds from the public treasury and spending same without Legislative approval, technically
and practically, tantamount to stealing public funds. In very clear cut terms, the
Buhari administration, which sailed into office on the platform of tackling
corruption andn has pontificated, since it’s inception, on a so-called ‘war
against corruption’, has suddenly found itself caught pants down, with its hand
not only buried deep in the public coffers, but also soiled with illicitly procuring
and expenditure of public funds.
The brazenness
of this particular heist, having been carried out in the face of stiff warnings
and opposition to it’s perpetuation from concerned quarters brought to the fore
the impunity and high-handedness of the Buuhari-led Federal Government and the
total disdain with which the head of the regime holds due process,
Constitutionalism and reverence for other arms of government.
The revelations,
now being unearthed, that the military equipment (10 units of United States
produced Super Tucano attack planes) on which the stolen public funds were expended
upon, were heavily over-inflated, probably gives an insight into why the Buhari
government did all in its powers to ensure that the Jets were procured without
approval from the National Assembly. Clearly, after this episode, all pretence
by the Buhari regime to having anything to do with efforts at addressing
corruption can only be uttered as a joke.
Picture:
In a comical
manner, soon after the heist was exposed and the public had been made aware
that the President had criminally withdrawn and expended public funds without
Legislative approval, President Buhari, sent in a belated ‘Request for Approval’
document for funds which had already been expended – this letter was read on
the floor of the House of Representatives several weeks after the funds had
been spent.
With benefit
of hindsight, it is important to note that one of the reasons why, as a
military dictator in 1984, then General Muhammadu Buhari had imprisoned former
Vice President Alex Ekwueme, was that the then Vice President had expended
public funds without legislative approval. It is thus only reasonable now to demand
that the full weight of the law be visited on President Buhari for the
unconstitutional and criminal withdrawal and expenditure of public funds
without legislative approval.
The National
Assembly is thus urged, to as a matter of urgent national importance and for
the safeguard of the public trust and confidence in the democratic governance
of the polity, for impeachment processes to be commenced against President
Buhari.
Picture: US-built Super
Tucano attack planes which the Buhari regime claims to have purchased with
funds illegality withdrawn and expended from the public treasury in Nigeria.
