Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Buhari’s Government Brazenly Steals US$462 Million: All Pretense at Anti-Corruption Stance Goes Up in Flames.


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that State Governors had decided to approve that the princely sum of One Billion Dollars (US$ 1,000,000,000) be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue of the Federation for the purpose of prosecuting the ‘war against terrorism/Boko Haram, discerning Nigerians and members of the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.




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