The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday prevaricated when asked a question on possible cut in lawmakers’ jumbo budget to reduce the high cost of governance in the country.
Mr Saraki, who was a special guest at the National Assembly Business Environment Round-table dinner organised as part of the ongoing 24th Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja, however admitted that over the years the National Assembly has not been Nigeria’s best ambassadors.
The National Assembly and the Executive appear to have allowed selfish political interests to override national duty, as important bills needed to create the enabling environment for investment and economic development have stalled, amid frosty relations between both arms, he said. In his introductory remarks, Mr Saraki spoke about Nigeria as a blessed country full of great opportunities and talented people in private and public sectors as well as young ones coming behind.
For long, he said, he has always been part of the search for the way forward for the country, urging Nigerians not to give up, as the country was closer to its set target. “For us to get there, we (government) and private sector must work together. The challenges before government today in fighting poverty can only be achieved through serious collaboration and cooperation with private sector. Government alone cannot do it,” he noted.
Restating his commitment to continue championing the call for collaboration, the senate president said “loans, buildings, debts, regulation and infrastructure alone cannot take us there.” During the plenary session, Channels TV’s Boason Omofaye who anchored the programme, asked Mr Saraki about the seeming lack of collaboration and cooperation between the legislature and executive.
The Senate President described the development as unfortunate, noting that “over the years, the executive and legislative arms of government did not see themselves as part of the same team.” He said the frosty relationship accounted for why a lot of achievements the administration could have recorded were hindered, although he alluded to the legislature performing better than the executive.
According to him, out of about 450 bills between the two chambers of the National Assembly, about 90 per cent were private member bills, with the executive accounting for about 10 per cent or less. Although he said all important things the lawmakers under his leadership in the 8th National Assembly set out to enable private sector work were realized, Mr Saraki said more could have been achieved if there was a closer collaboration with the executive.
He cited the example of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), which he said should have been an executive bill, but was taken over by the legislature. “When we started, the price of crude oil was in the $50s. Now, it is in the $80s. There are problems in Venezuela and Iran driving the price. This is a golden opportunity Nigeria could take advantage of.
“I don’t think two, three paragraphs or one coma or semi-colon in a draft law should prevent this level of investment or opportunity for investment. If we (lawmakers) did not get it right, I think the way to go is to lock ourselves up in a room and iron out those issues,” Mr Saraki said. His response was an indirect criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari who withheld assent to the PIGB on ground of some errors in the draft petroleum law.
On anti-corruption, which the anchor described as the “big elephant in the room”, Mr Saraki was asked the National Assembly stance on transparency, accountability and reduction in the cost of governance and why the executive seems to be the only arm talking about them. Although the Senate President acknowledged the cost of government was large, he blamed the problem on the leakages in the system, saying the expenditure as a percentage of revenue was high.
“I think there are wastages we can reduce. But, where the real damage is being done is in leakages on the revenue side to check corruption and inefficiencies,” he noted. However, he was quick to deny that the executive was the only arm talking about anti-corruption, noting that most of the laws, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and others enacted to fight against corruption, were from the National Assembly.
Besides, he criticised the current fight against corruption as “sensational and selective”, saying it must not only be transparent and credible, but must follow a transparent process. On cutting cost of governance, Mr Saraki was asked: “Should we reduce the number of MDAs, cut the cost of running the National Assembly or Aso Villa, or the 36 State Houses of Assembly, the various governors’ lodges or reduce the number of aircrafts?”
In his response, Mr Saraki prevaricated, agreeing that apart from reducing all that, government must be able to increase its revenues. Not satisfied by the Senate President’s response, Mr Omofaye wanted to know what percentage or amount he would want the National Assembly to cut in its budget starting from 2019.
His response was unclear, eliciting loud grumbling from the audience: “If I tell you what should happen, I am not sure I will be allowed to have dinner here tonight. The problem we have (on the cost of governance in National Assembly) is a perception problem, not the actual cost itself.
“If you want to run a proper legislative arm of government, it’s less than three per cent of the total revenue. Yet, they are responsible for oversighting 97 per cent of the revenue. Don’t get me wrong here. Over the years, we have not been our best ambassadors.
“And that is why, if you say curse to the National Assembly, everybody will be happy to say yes. The point is, we want a productive government. We want to ensure the 97 per cent is efficiently utilised. “The political answer would be to say we will cut the cost by 10 or 15 per cent. But, what we need to do is, as we cut those costs and overheads, we must create an enabling environment that ensures as a country we are getting more revenues to invest in our education or health sector or primary healthcare,” he said.
