Abdulmumin Jibrin’s outburst after leaving his position as Chairman of the House appropriations committee, has once again brought the disastrous handling of the 2016 budget process into full focus.

His claims that the leadership of the House inserted thousands of constituency projects into the budget to the tune of N30billion, raises many issues, irrespective of his motive.
The claims he made should be investigated and authenticated as a matter of urgency. Given the revenue challenges of the federal and state governments, such abuse of power can only be a crime, and would go directly against the anti-corruption posture of the Buhari administration.

At a time when millions of government workers across the country go unpaid for several months at a time, and in a country where its lawmakers are already some of the highest paid in the world, the accusations demonstrate once again how out of step the legislators are with the mood of the country.

As usual, the different camps are trying to spin their own side of the story to gain the upper hand in the court of public opinion. Accusations and counter accusations will fill the pages of newspapers for a while.

The temptation to lean towards one camp or the other is strong, but that should not cause us to lose sight of what is really important. The process of putting together the budget is hopelessly opaque, and gives room for abuse at every stage.

Much was made of the use of zero based budgeting as a way to clean up the budget, by justifying every single expense. Not only did that not happen, we were treated to a comedy of errors that delayed its signing till a few days before the Buhari administration’s first year in office.

Compounding the problem is a legislature that is unaccountable to those whose votes they rely on get into office. The National Assembly has a first line charge of N120billion from the Federation Account, while providing zero clarity as to how that money is used. Increasing pressure to publish their expenditure has met with, so far, empty promises.

Since the National Assembly cannot properly perform oversight on the Executive without first being accountable themselves, they are a hindrance, rather than a help. They are a problem to be solved. There have been many occasions in the past when this has been obvious, and this is just the latest example.

There is the need to focus, not just on who occupies Aso Rock, but also on those who make up the legislature. We are not immune to the ill effects of the laws they pass, or to how they exercise their oversight.

The personalities involved in this latest scandal are nowhere near as important as the issues raised. Subsequent budget processes need to be much more transparent, and an out of control legislature needs to be brought to heel.
That is all that matters.

Adebayo Emuleomo