Politics
Buhari’s 2019 Budget Presentation: Another Developmental Anomaly
There was near pandemonium last Wednesday on the floor of the National Assembly (NASS) when Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2019 budget. The bone of contention was disagreement over claims on achievements in the past three and half years of governance by the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC).
While members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) led opposition booed as the Mr. President mentioned the purported achievements of the government one-by-one, the ruling party hailed. But even then, the voice of the opposition was unmistakably too high to be subsumed.
At the end of the day, all other normalcy was thrown to the air as the session came to an abrupt end, with no speech entertained from neither the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, nor the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Expectedly, in a democracy, this action of the ruling party has attracted various reactions. Specifically as is characteristic of Nigerian politics, some of these reactions, coming from the echelon of the ruling party, are self-contradictory, to the point that questions their real intentions.
One of the earliest reactions to the commotion in the Hallowed Chambers came from the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Abdulrazak Namdas, who declared the day’s event as normal in a democracy.
According to him, “What happened on the floor of the House was democracy in action. There is nothing abnormal about it because you could see that (members of) the ruling party were hailing the President but the opposition was not doing same.
“Everybody has the right to freedom of speech. But at the end of the day, the budget has been presented by the President and message has been passed, and it has been laid. That is what is important”.
He however evaded questions regarding why the Senate President and Speaker of House where not given opportunity to give their speeches, as a matter of responsibility.
His explanation was, “I want you to know that it was not just the Speaker, even when the President was actually reading out the budget speech, there was interruption at each point.”
In his response, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spoke on behalf of Government, credited what transpired to those he called “unruly lawmakers who threw away parliamentary decorum to behave like ordinary protesters or agitators’’.
According to the Minister, “it is nothing but bad politicking, infantile politicking/parliamentary rascality. But the real news is that the unruly action provided the platform for our party, the APC, to assert its majority in the National Assembly”.
He did not stop there, as far as he is concerned, the incidents of that Wednesday, December 19, 2018 in the NASS is lesson for what will happen in the call of Nigerians for the President to assent to the pending Electoral Bill ahead of the 2019 general elections.
He used the opportunity to explain that as far as the same Electoral Bill was used to conduct the 2015 elections, which was adjudged to be largely free and fair, there was no need to change it.
“That law was drafted and approved under the same opposition that is now crying foul. “At what point did they lose confidence in this same law? What do they know that they are not telling Nigerians? The noise over the bill is a distraction and a potential alibi for an opposition in disarray,’’ he said.
In all of this melodrama, clearly characterized more by a quest by the ruling party to let the status quo remain than alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians, whose voice do not seem to matter, one key phenomenon that has played out is anomalies that can be hugely developmental for Nigeria, if the players truly have patriotism running throw their veins.
This season of developmental anomalies started with the first ever loss by a sitting President in 2015, when then President Goodluck Jonathan was voted out of power. While this was normal in a true democracy, it was widely seen as abnormal in Nigeria’s version of democracy.
The reason is mostly a mere belief that given the power accorded the Chief Executive in Nigeria, he is in a position to “do and undo”, meaning that he has the power to do virtually anything he deems fit. All he has to do is give just any explanation for his actions. The believability of such explanation is usually not secondary.
Another developmental abnormality played out again in the constitution of the leadership of the NASS at the end of elections in 2015. The contention was on who should be the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Expectedly, both the ruling party and the opposition had their choices. But as is usual, especially in Nigerian politics, in which merit can easily be slaughtered without qualms for mediocrity, just to prove superiority, amongst other unnecessary considerations, the choice of the ruling party takes the day.
But, at the end of a lot of political horse trading, which included bootlicking, propaganda, trade-by-barter, advocacy, etc, at various dignified levels, the fewer opposition members succeeded in instituting their choices for both the Senate President and Speaker of the Lower House, in the fold of Saraki and Dogara respectively.
While this was also abnormal in the Nigerian political white book, it was developmental to the point that it created a reasonable atmosphere of balance that had been hitherto non-existent at that level of Nigeria’s politics.
This has so far given little room for reason, if any, not to contend that it is these developmental anomalies at the highest levels of the country’s political space that has given birth and standing to such vehement disagreements witnessed recently over the call for the President’s assent to the Electoral Bill, and the incidents of last Wednesday over the 2019 budget.
In all, it has not only become easier to identify the rabble-rousers and pathological self-serving sycophants in Nigeria’s polity, but also made the institution of change at the right time very imperative.
What is yet to be done to seal the institution of more development anomalies in the Nigerian mentality, perhaps, is ensuring that when it is time for these anomalies to occur, nothing can stop them, not even the incumbency factor.
One way to ensure this is to put the Nigerian Constitution aright and make it work for the people.
Soibi Max-Alalibo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday told the National Assembly that it requires N873.78bn to conduct the 2027 general elections, even as it seeks N171bn to fund its operations in the 2026 fiscal year.
INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, made the disclosure while presenting the commission’s 2026 budget proposal and the projected cost for the 2027 general elections before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters in Abuja.
According to Amupitan, the N873.78bn election budget covers the full conduct of national polls in 2027.
An additional N171bn is needed to support INEC’s routine activities in 2026, including bye-elections and off-season elections, the commission stated.
The INEC boss said the proposed election budget does not include a fresh request from the National Youth Service Corps seeking increased allowances for corps members engaged as ad-hoc staff during elections.
He explained that, although the details of specific line items were not exhaustively presented, the almost N1tn election budget is structured across five major components.
“N379.75bn is for operational costs, N92.32bn for administrative costs, N209.21bn for technological costs, N154.91bn for election capital costs and N42.61bn for miscellaneous expenses,” Amupitan said.
The INEC chief noted that the budget was prepared “in line with Section 3(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, which mandates the Commission to prepare its election budget at least one year before the general election.”
On the 2026 fiscal year, Amupitan disclosed that the Ministry of Finance provided an envelope of N140bn, stressing, however, that “INEC is proposing a total expenditure of N171bn.”
The breakdown includes N109bn for personnel costs, N18.7bn for overheads, N42.63bn for election-related activities and N1.4bn for capital expenditure.
He argued that the envelope budgeting system is not suitable for the Commission’s operations, noting that INEC’s activities often require urgent and flexible funding.
Amupitan also identified the lack of a dedicated communications network as a major operational challenge, adding that if the commission develops its own network infrastructure, Nigerians would be in a better position to hold it accountable for any technical glitches.
Speaking at the session, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) said external agencies should not dictate the budgeting framework for INEC, given the unique and sensitive nature of its mandate.
He advocated that the envelope budgeting model should be set aside.
He urged the National Assembly to work with INEC’s financial proposal to avoid future instances of possible underfunding.
In the same vein, a member of the House of Representatives from Edo State, Billy Osawaru, called for INEC’s budget to be placed on first-line charge as provided in the Constitution, with funds released in full and on time to enable the Commission to plan early enough for the 2027 general election.
The Joint Committee approved a motion recommending the one-time release of the Commission’s annual budget.
The committee also said it would consider the NYSC’s request for about N32bn to increase allowances for corps members to N125,000 each when engaged for election duties.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Simon Along, assured that the National Assembly would work closely with the Commission to ensure it receives the necessary support for the successful conduct of the 2027 general elections.
Similarly, the Chairman of the House Committee on Electoral Matters, Bayo Balogun, also pledged legislative support, warning INEC to be careful about promises it might be unable to keep.
He recalled that during the 2023 general election, INEC made strong assurances about uploading results to the INEC Result Viewing portal, creating the impression that results could be monitored in real time.
“iREV was not even in the Electoral Act; it was only in INEC regulations. So, be careful how you make promises,” Balogun warned.
The N873.78bn proposed by INEC for next year’s general election is a significant increase from the N313.4bn released to the Commission by the Federal Government for the conduct of the 2023 general election.
In a timetable issued by its National Secretariat in Abuja and signed by the National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu, the party said the activities were in line with provisions of its constitution guiding the election of party officials across all tiers.
According to the schedule, membership e-registration began on January 31 and ended on February 8, while notices of congresses were dispatched to state and Federal Capital Territory chapters on February 2.
Submission of nomination forms for ward and local government congresses closed on February 9, followed by screening and appeals between February 10 and February 14.
Ward congresses are fixed for February 18, with appeals the following day, while local government congresses will take place on February 21 and appeals on February 23.
At the state level, purchase of forms for state executive positions will run from February 22 to February 25, with screening set for February 27–28 and appeals from March 1–2. State congresses are scheduled for March 3, and appeals on March 4.
Activities leading to zonal congresses and the national convention include purchase and submission of forms between March 12 and March 16, inauguration of screening committees on March 23, and screening of aspirants on March 24. Zonal congresses across the six geo-political zones are slated for March 25, with appeals on March 26.
The party’s national convention will hold from March 27 to March 28.The APC also published fees for expression of interest and nomination forms across the different tiers.
At the ward level, expression of interest costs ?5,000, while nomination forms range from ?15,000 to ?20,000 depending on the position. For local government positions, nomination forms range from ?50,000 to ?100,000 after a ?10,000 expression-of-interest fee.
State executive positions attract ?50,000 for expression of interest, with nomination forms pegged at ?1 million for chairman and ?500,000 for other offices. Zonal offices require ?100,000 expression of interest and ?200,000 for nomination.
For national positions, the fees rise significantly, with expression of interest set at ?100,000. Nomination forms cost ?10 million for national chairman, ?7.5 million for deputy national chairmen and national secretary, ?5 million for other offices, and ?250,000 for National Executive Committee membership.
The party noted that female aspirants, youths and persons living with disabilities would pay only the expression-of-interest fee and 50 per cent of nomination costs. It also clarified that Ekiti, Osun, Rivers states and the FCT are excluded from ward, local government and state congresses, but will participate in electing delegates to the national convention.
Forms are to be completed online after payment verification, with payments directed to designated APC accounts at Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa.
The congress cycle is expected to determine new party leadership structures ahead of future electoral activities.
The Tide source reports that the committee, reportedly backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike, is making moves to reclaim the Wadata Plaza headquarters months after it was sealed following a violent clash between rival factions of the party.
Senior officers at the FCT Police Command told our source that while they had not received an official briefing, police personnel would be stationed at the secretariat and other key locations to maintain peace.
The Acting National Secretary of the Mohammed-led committee, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, announced last week that the secretariat would reopen for official activities on Monday (today).
He dismissed claims that ongoing litigation would prevent the reopening, saying, “There are no legal barriers preventing the caretaker committee from resuming work at the party’s headquarters.”
However, the Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC) has fiercely rejected the reopening move, insisting that Sen. Anyanwu and his group remain expelled from the PDP and have no authority to act on its behalf.
Speaking with The Tide source, the committee’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, declared: “They are living in fool’s paradise. The worst form of deceit is self-deceit, where the person knows he is deceiving himself yet continues with gusto.
“Even INEC, which they claim has recognised them, has denied them. They are indulging in a roller coaster of self-deceit.”
Mr Ememobong further revealed that letters had been sent to both the Inspector-General of Police and the FCT Commissioner of Police, stressing that the matter was still in court and warning against any attempt to “resort to self-help.”
“The case pending before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik was instituted by the expelled members. They cannot resort to self-help until judgment is delivered,” he said.
He warned that reopening the secretariat would amount to contempt of court.
A senior officer at the FCT Police Command, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that officers would be deployed to the area to avert a repeat of the November 19 violence that led to the secretariat’s initial closure.
“The command would not stand by and allow a breakdown of peace and order by the party or anyone else. Definitely, the police will have to be on the ground,” he said.
Another officer added, “There will definitely be men present at the secretariat, but I can’t say the number of police officers that would be deployed.”
When contacted, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, said she had not been briefed on the planned reopening and declined to comment on whether officers would be deployed.
Asked to confirm whether the secretariat was initially sealed by police, she responded, “Yes,” but refused to say more about the current deployment plans.
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