President Muhammadu Buhari’s tone during his maiden media chat held on December 30, 2015 — particularly on the issues relating to the perks of office enjoyed by the members of the National Assembly — gave warning signals of a likely unsavoury relationship between the executive and the legislative arms of government.
In keeping with his resolve to cut down on the cost of governance, especially the public recurrent expenditure, which consumes over ‘74 per cent’ (the President actually quoted 90 per cent) of the country’s annual budget, Buhari struck a chord our senators and members of the House of Representatives did not find amusing — to stop their plan to buy exotic cars in the 2016 fiscal year.
Given the harsh economic realities of today, with crude oil, the nation’s main foreign exchange earner, selling under $35 per barrel, and the 2016 budget of N6.08tn already in deficit of N2tn, Buhari reasoned that the lawmakers should give up their dream of driving choice automobiles at taxpayer’s expense.
The Senate has a robust plan to splash about N4.7bn on 109 Toyota Land Cruisers for its members, besides additional customised vehicles for the convoys of its presiding officers.
Their colleagues in the House of Representatives have neither decided on the type of exotic cars to buy, nor have they placed a budget on it.
However, what is not in doubt is that the 360 members of the lower chamber intend to splash between N3.4bn and N4.2bn on new vehicles this year, depending on the brands they eventually settle for. Their presiding officers too will upgrade the vehicles in their convoys.
The President appears uncomfortable with this. Responding to a specific question on the cost of running the National Assembly, he quickly took a swipe at the lawmakers on the issue of cars.
He actually accused them of planning to spend ‘N47bn’ (apparently referring to the Senate’s N4.7bn) to buy cars, a move he said he would stop.
Buhari expressed his displeasure by recalling the fact that he once turned down an offer to spend N400m to replace vehicles in the presidential convoy.
He said, “I can’t see the National Assembly spending more than N47bn (N4.7bn) to buy cars, despite the transport allowance they collect.
“I have to revisit that story. The budget for their transport allowance comes up to N100bn. With the kind of money that goes into the National Assembly, we have to look at it conscientiously and see how we can live within our means.”
The presidential uppercut immediately set him on a collision course with the National Assembly. The two chambers denied the President’s N47bn, but at the same time admitted that they must buy cars as a matter of necessity to function effectively in the course of their oversight duties.
For example, the House pointedly said it would buy cars worth an amount in the region of N4bn.
The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Leo Ogor, explained, “Even if there is any proposal to buy cars for committees’ oversight functions, it cannot be more than N4bn.
“If you say we are buying vehicles of over N40bn, that is about 40 per cent of our annual budget, which you know cannot be so. I think that was wrong. Except if the proposal is coming from the executive; we are not aware of any such amount to purchase vehicles.”
The presidential onslaught is coming at a time the National Assembly is even passing the message that it is already sacrificing, looking at the decline of its total budget since 2015. Members have yet to understand why the purchase of ‘utility’ cars for legislative duties should become Buhari’s first headache with the legislature.
The National Assembly has a budget proposal of N115bn in 2016, down from N120bn in 2015 and N150bn from 2010 to 2014. Some senators argued that the Senate has sacrificed N35bn in two budgets.
Some lawmakers also argue that the budget is shared between 469 senators/Reps, their aides, the bureaucracy of the National Assembly, the National Assembly Commission, the National Assembly Budget and Research Office and the National Institute of Legislative Studies.
Besides, they argue that there are in-house measures being taken to cut cost, like the legislative needs assessment project introduced by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, as a key item on the agenda of the 8th House. The aim essentially, is to assess the financial requirements of the legislature by ensuring that funds are allocated only to areas of relevance.
It was no surprise that Buhari’s stance would not be welcomed by our legislators and could be a sore point in their relationship.
Yet, the purchase of exotic cars by each set of new lawmakers over the years has always generated controversy, raising the question of what became of the monetisation policy of the Federal Government. It becomes more complicated when lawmakers still take a car loan (between N7m and N8m), in addition to the controversial ‘utility’ or committee cars, which they practically own.
The cars had been bought over the years but it was not until 2008 when a contract awarded under the leadership of a former Speaker, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, to procure cars worth over N2.4bn, became a public issue. It got national attention because the lawmakers were fighting over whether the manner the contract was awarded met the rules of transparency. Some felt shortchanged in the alleged sharing of a cache of cash left as balance after the cars had been bought.
Under Bankole, the choice car was Peugeot 407. During the 7th House (2011-2015) when Mr. Aminu Tambuwal was the speaker, the choice car was Toyota Camry.
Members have claimed that the cars are utility or ‘pool’ vehicles for committee duties. This excuse is made plausible with their reference to the fact that the executive too still procures utility vehicles in spite of the monetisation policy in place.
The committee or utility cars are usually taken possession of by members.
However, while the car loans are repaid through deductions from the pay package of the lawmakers, the committee cars are held by them for four years with the presumption that they will be handed over to the next set of legislators.
Investigations have showed that over the years, the practice has been for departing lawmakers to hold on to the cars, while the management of the National Assembly evaluates the vehicles and deducts an agreed amount from their severance package. The truth is that the vehicles are still in good condition and can be used for another four years. When this happens, new lawmakers have no utility cars to work with, thereby making the purchase of new vehicles an excuse.
In the 6th House (2007-2011), under the leadership of Bankole, which bought Peugeot 407 for members as committee cars, the cars were taken away by the departing legislators.
During the 7th House — between 2011 and 2015 — when Tambuwal was the speaker, at the close of the tenure on June 5, 2015, all the cars were taken away after the bureaucracy of the National Assembly valued them and asked the outgoing members to part with a fraction of the original value of the vehicles from their severance packages.
However, lawmakers, while not exactly opposing the cutting of the cost of governance, are also asking Buhari to turn his attention to the executive, where a bulk of the annual budget goes into.
For example, they are asking the President to explain why he is still keeping over 11 aircraft in the presidential fleet in spite of subscribing to reducing cost of governance.
In the 2016 budget, they have also queried certain provisions in the Presidency’s share, including the proposal to spend N3.5bn on cars too.
Ogor observed, “The Presidency has proposed to buy cars for almost N3.5bn, there is electrical wiring of almost N300m. There are so many proposals in the Presidency’s budget that we think should be subjected to thorough discussions. Some of the proposals in the Presidency’s budget may not even stand. Where we are not convinced, we will remove and take some subheads to areas we think they are needed.”
The House Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, did not oppose the idea of members buying utility vehicles for legislative duties either. He admitted, “I am not aware of cars for members, but I am aware of utility cars for the committees.”
One member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, advised Buhari to focus on the executive and not the legislature or the judiciary in his plans to reduce the cost of governance.
The member stated, “The implication is that these other arms are being weakened by the executive, while the budget of the executive keeps increasing. Last year, the executive alone spent N4tn; this year, they will spend about N6tn because when you look at the entire budget, the National Assembly’s share is about two per cent.”
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