The National Assembly is prepared to reduce the N2.8 trillion budget recently returned by President Umaru Yar’Adua for the purpose of sustaining the cordiality between the two arms of government, the deputy president of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has said.

Ekweremadu, who is also the chairman of the National Assembly Conference Committee on the harmonization of the budget, in an interview, weekend nevertheless, affirmed the determination of the legislature to preserve its constitutional duty of appropriation.

The deputy Senate president spoke just as South-South senators pressed ahead with their demand for the release of the N226 billion accruing to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) held back by the Obasanjo administration. Caucus members are demanding that the withheld fund be treated like the Lagos State council funds similarly held by former President Olusegun Obasanjo but released by his successor in batches.

Noting the presidential misgivings on the expansion of the N2.45 trillion 2008 budgetary estimates presented by the president, last November, Ekweremadu said:

“We are prepared to adjust in the best interest of the country but indeed we will not sacrifice our responsibility to appropriate; so, we will just adjust within the bounds of reason and patriotism.”

In returning the budget to the National Assembly in two separate letters dated February 22, 2008 to the Senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives, Yar’Adua had expressed misgivings on certain increases made by the legislature.

Particularly outstanding were the N18 billion extra provisions to the Federal Road Management Agency (FERMA) which the president said he was rejecting.
Besides FERMA, a couple of other agencies had their allocations increased.

Particularly troubling to both the Presidency and the National Assembly leadership is the muttering by several of the lawmakers that some of the increases to the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were done without recourse to the supervising National Assembly committees.

Some committee chairmen, Sunday Vanguard learnt, had expressed serious reservations on the increases to the MDAs effected without the knowledge of the National Assembly oversight committees. Some senate committee chairmen, during a closed door session just before the passage of the budget, last month, were said to have expressed strong suspicions on the unilateral increases to their oversight MDAs.

In rejecting the budget passed by the National Assembly, Yar’Adua also questioned the 78% increase in the recurrent provision for the National Assembly.

“While appreciating the reasons for some increase, especially due to the effort to ensure that no National Assembly Committee seeks the financial assistance of any MDA before embarking on any oversight function, I still believe that an increase of 78% is far too high,” the president had written in his letter.

“In this respect, I would like to advise that the overall increase is kept to no more than 20%”.
Ekweremadu, while affirming the willingness of the legislators to make sacrifices, weekend, said:

“The problem is that, over the years, when we had military regime when we didn’t have the parliament, a lot needs to be done to build the institution and that is why it would appear that whatever we are doing is rather too big. But when you go to retrace it, you will see that it is part of an effort to build an enduring institution. But we are prepared to look at it again if that is what will help the country. We are representing the estimates, and, so, if we need to look back and make sacrifices, so be it. We will be prepared to look back at it again.”

Meanwhile, South-South senators are pressing for the release of the N226 billion outstanding funds of the NDDC withheld from the intervention agency during the immediate past administration. Yar’Adua, while promising to faithfully implement the funding provisions of the NDDC, had, only recently, ruled out the payment of the outstanding funds, saying they had expired in line with his administration’s policy of not rolling on budgets.

However, the South-South senators, Sunday Vanguard gathered, are protesting the decision, drawing support from the release of the outstanding funds accruing to Lagos State local governments. “There cannot be two positions on this issue especially as the amount is not from the Federal Government budget. We are protesting the decision and will be joining hands to make sure that the decision is reversed,” one of the members of the upper chamber from the Niger Delta said, weekend.

It was learnt that a definitive stance on the matter was pending because of the absence of the South-South Senate caucus leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), who is reported to be out of the country.

Source: Vanguard