Repeated demands for the actual level of implementation of the 2012 federal budget is beginning to create an impression that all is not well with the system.  Indeed, the threat that follows the demands almost gives the impression that there is more to it than the budget.

When some members of the House of Representatives first raised the matter, little attention was paid to it, because there was no way the executive could have achieved 100 per cent  implementation of a budget passed in April 2012.  But when the Senate through its Deputy President, Ike Ekweremadu queried the failure of the Finance Minister to appear before its committee on Public Finance, the matter became a bit confusing for some Nigerians.

The Tide believes that the due implementation of any budget should concern all well meaning persons.  For the legislature, it should be a burden because if the budget is not implemented all their work would have been in vain.  But some basic rules cannot be ignored if appropriations are to be done properly.

We are aware of the history of budget abuses in Nigeria.  Indeed, the usual inability to achieve substantial part of the budget each year had taken Nigeria many steps backwards.  Worse still, is what becomes of the money after the year, as many Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) fail to appropriately account for them.

Even worse, is the fact that the failure to apply the budget on services, robs the people of the much needed amenities, development and infrastructure.  Year after year, very important roads like the East-West Road are not addressed not because there are no funds, but because some officials are failing in their duties and hoping also to reap from it.

That is why some steps being taken by the National Assembly to ensure that the budget was being implemented would be music in the ears of many Nigerians. Even so, the Finance Minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had said things about the implementation that also carry some merit.

According to Okonjo-Iweala, the Federal Government was managing the budget to serve the best interest of Nigerians.  That transparency and prudence were being enthroned with a view to achieving higher budget implementation and better management of the country’s resources.  Adding that by June they have achieved 56 per cent utilization of cash backed resources.

If this official position is anything to go by, there should be no reason for an executive/legislative rift at the federal level.  As the arm that implements the budget, the executive can hardly be faulted on figures but that people outside the executive would be declaring the level of implementation of the budget as different is what we cannot understand.

Apart from the simple understanding that sums budgeted for are not already available to be picked up, the attitude of some Nigerians to public money makes it mandatory for people who make releases to be more careful.  The demand for the immediate implementation, of up to a 100 per cent becomes hasty in the circumstance.

While we think that the Federal Government needs to make haste consciously, but also need to be commended for acting in line with their slogan to transform the way things are done in Nigeria.  They need to be commended for insisting on due process and making people report on milestone utilization before qualifying for more payment under the budget.

It is good that the National Assembly is pushing as part of its oversight functions and it should, but the point must not be missed that the executive stands to be held responsible for any mis-adventure with the budget.  In fact, it should interest the National Assembly that the Federal Government was bringing sanity into budget implementation at the federal level.

Indeed, that even on account of the new budget discipline they have been able to achieve 56 per cent implementation of a budget passed in April 2012 is something that should make any Nigerian proud.  It is our hope that the same level of discipline and progress would be replicated at all levels of government in Nigeria.

No matter the level of suspicion between the executive and the legislature, we expect a mutual working relations in the interest of the Nigerian project.  Even the legislators should support the process by subjecting their constituency projects to this process to eliminate stories of mis-appropriation often associated with such projects.

As law-makers, they know that nobody is above the law and that the polity works best when issues are addressed appropriately.  Therefore, even legislators who may be wounded by the insistence on due process must see the country and the law as being supreme rather than see it as an affront to their high offices  hence, an opportunity to heat up the polity.

While we understand the argument by the Finance Minister that there is no where 100 per cent budget implementation is achieved, we think that Nigeria has gone through enough and must endeavour to achieve it, if for nothing else, to make up for many lost opportunities.