Budget padding: Tinubu is a liar – Saraki

President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has described the allegations of budget padding and deliberate budget delays levelled against the leadership of the 8th National Assembly by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as “careless, irresponsible and callous” lies concocted to smear the image of the parliament.

The rebuttal came just as Saraki warned Tinubu to steer clear of the current leadership tussle in the National Assembly as his alleged plot to dictate who gets what position in the two chambers of the parliament would fail as it did four years ago.

Saraki, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, demanded that Tinubu should substantiate his allegations against the parliament with facts or withdraw them to avoid serving misleading narratives to the public.

In a no-holds barred outburst released on Sunday, Tinubu had alleged that in the last four years of Saraki’s leadership of the Senate, national budgets have been delayed, distorted, padded, new projects introduced and funds for projects reduced, to halt the progress of the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.

Saraki said it was unfortunate that Tinubu, who had been in the Senate for 22 months during the transition to civil rule, was making such allegation when he ought to have had a better understanding of the budget process in a legislature.

The Senate President argued that the National Assembly under his watch cannot be accused of budget padding because whatever alterations the parliaments made on the successive national budget were done in the public interest and not to line the pockets of the leadership or members of the National Assembly.

“However, there is need to let him know that it is the constitutional responsibility of the National Assembly to review the proposals sent by the executive and where it deems necessary, it is within the power of the legislature to make changes. A good example is the decision by the National Assembly to include in the 2018 budget the one per cent of the total budget, amounting to N33 billion, as allocation for Universal Health Coverage as provided by an extant law, which had been hitherto observed in the breach.

“Is this what Tinubu considers as budget padding? And this was a decision which was praised across the world as a real benefit to ordinary people across the country,” he said.

According to Saraki, the passage of budgets is not the exclusive responsibility of the leadership of the Senate as most of the work is done by the various committees headed by Senators representing different parties.

He explained that the level of co-operation between the committees and the MDAs in the timely defence of the budget proposals and the ability of the two chambers of the National Assembly to reconcile their figures were usually the major determinants of how soon budgets are passed.

Saraki said that any attempt to put the blame of budget delay on him as the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara was akin to mischief, or at best, playing to the gallery.

“It is also a known fact that any so-called delay in the passage of budgets under the Eighth National Assembly is traceable to the refusal of heads of MDAs to defend the budget proposals for their agencies on time. Last year, the President himself had to direct the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to compel heads of MDAs to appear before the National Assembly committees following the report made to him by Dr. Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

“So, if a man like Tinubu is spreading this falsehood about budget passage and delay being deliberately orchestrated by the National Assembly leadership, one wonders whether he tries to even understand what happens in the federal legislature at all or is that the only thing that is of interest to him is “jockeying and manoeuvring for influence” as he puts it.

“We invite Tinubu to look at the records of the time of submission of budgets and their passage since 2010 and he will see that with the exception of the 2013 budget which was passed on December 20, 2012, all the budgets have been passed between March and May of the same fiscal year.

“This should give him a better understanding of the fact that the date the Appropriations Bill is submitted to parliament and the readiness of the MDAs to defend the proposals submitted as well as timely agreement on the figures by both chambers of the National Assembly are the main determining factors in when the budget is eventually passed. So, Tinubu should see that the facts cannot support his spins and fake narrative.

“In all the three budgets already passed by the National Assembly, we challenge Tinubu to make specific reference to where Dr. Saraki and the leadership of the National Assembly “sought to pad with pet projects” as he alleged. Tinubu should be graceful enough to substantiate this allegation. We consider that allegation careless, irresponsible and callous. We, therefore, demand that he should withdraw it,” Saraki said.

He pointedly accused Tinubu of employing a mob of spin doctors to peddle falsehood in the media that the emergence of the present leadership of the National Assembly was a mistake when, indeed, they were democratically elected by their colleagues in the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The President of the Senate said he owed his survival in office for the past 46 months, despite all the plots hatched by anti-democratic, reactionary and fascist elements, to the support of his colleagues.

He warned Tinubu to avoid meddling with the current leadership tussle in the National Assembly as it could boomerang like a similar plot did in 2015.

“In fact, Tinubu should know that if there was any mistake made on June 9, 2015, it was the miscalculation by himself and his small cabal in the APC  who felt they could decide for the Senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect. When they failed after their grandstanding that they could always get whatever they desired, they resorted to undermining the institution of the legislature and waging a campaign of calumny against the lawmaking body.

“It is now clear that those who took Senators away from the chambers contrary to the directive contained in the proclamation signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 9, 2015 are ‘mistake personified’. It is obvious that if they repeat that arrogance during the inauguration of the Ninth National Assembly, they will fail again because Nigeria is greater than them. The institution of the legislature is bigger than the over-bloated egos of these power mongers and dirty schemers.

“Let us repeat again that we know that a Machiavellian politician like Tinubu will forever agonize over his erroneous belief that Dr. Saraki frustrated his ambition from becoming running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari through a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015. In his usual cavalier manner, he will stop at nothing to punish Saraki for that,” he said.

The President of the Senate said Tinubu’s latest attack on him was not about the interest of the nation or that of President Buhari, but about his 2023 presidential ambition.

He urged Tinubu to leave him out of his “schemes and manipulations” towards 2023.

“It is obvious his arbitrary and tactless interference in the process for the emergence of the leadership of the Ninth Assembly is already falling through. The frustration from this experience might have been responsible for these needless and baseless outbursts. Our only advice for him is that if he is interested in the stability of the National Assembly, he should allow the members to elect their leadership in consultations with the party leadership. He should stop treating the legislators like hapless pupils receiving orders from a cane-wielding headmaster.

“A situation where he, Tinubu, is dictating to elected legislators and ordering them to either comply with his directives or get out of the party, will not augur well for the legislature in the next dispensation. History should have taught him that only a leadership that truly enjoys the support of members can help the President and his administration to achieve their objectives. It is a good development that the candidates for the various positions are already reaching out to their colleagues and forging alliances. We can see that after he realized that he has misfired, he is trying to retrace his step and, in his usual devious manner, he is looking for scapegoats,” Saraki said.

The Senate President noted that the 8th National Assembly has performed more than any of the previous Assemblies in terms of the number of bills passed by the lawmakers.

He said that while the Buhari administration has forwarded only 11 bills to the Senate in four years, the Red Chamber of the National Assembly has passed 282 bills.

According to him, the highest any Senate had passed is 129 bills recorded by the 5th Senate.

“The bills passed, motions moved, intervention made and frequent engagements with the people were all directed towards addressing the day-to-day issues that affect the lives of the ordinary Nigerians. Of course, all these initiatives will be ignored by a man who is still sulking because his vow in 2015 that Saraki and Dogara will never lead the National Assembly did not materialize,” he said.