BUDGET PADDING: UNEASY CALM, AS PRO AND ANTI DOGARA FORCES LAUNCH fresh OFFENSIVES
By Kemi Yesufu
Ousted chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin has kept to his vow of the House beginning and ending with the budget padding scandal which his allegations triggered. Despite being on holidays ,lawmakers have thronged the National Assembly and other locations for meetings to take decisions on who to support in the raging battle between Jibrin, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun, Majority Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor.
The former chairman has not relented in accusing the four members of the House leadership whom he has dubbed the quartet of taking for themselves N40 billion out of the N100 billion allocated for constituency projects in the 2016 budget.
Though Jibrin didn’t mention House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila, the documents he released showed that, Gbajabiamila’s, Surulere 1 Federal Constituency received projects worth about N1.8 billion in the budget. Last week, stories of the House’ body of principal officers fingering Gbajabiamila as the weakest link emerged, with some saying he could be the mole in the House leadership Ogor talked about in a recent interview. But the no love lost situation between the former chairman and the House Leader is an open secret. Regardless, Sunday Sun investigation shows that pro-Dogara lawmakers have sacrificed days in their annual break really getting busy with finding support for him, even when the task they have taken up hasn’t all been easy.
The battle for signatures in North-West, South-West
The unresolved grievances among South-West lawmakers over the low number of Standing Committee chairmen and vice-chairmen in the House of Representatives might have come back to haunt, Dogara. Sources told this paper that though, the Speaker’s supporters have been able to secure hundreds of signatures for a vote of confidence to be passed on him among members from the South-South, the South- East, the North-Central, the North-East, they are struggling with securing, the desperately needed signatures from the South-West and North-West. Recall that Sunday Adepoju, representing Ibarapa East/Ido Federal Constituency of Oyo State, rejected his selection as the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Special Duties, in protest over the poor representation of the South-West among Committee heads. Also sports administrator turned lawmaker, Ayo Omidiran who is the Osun State Caucus chairperson once told this reporter in an interview at the wake of the controversy over the appointment of committee heads, that despite being the only ranking female lawmaker from the APC, she wasn’t appointed chairperson or vice-chairperson of a Standing Committee because she backed the party’s preferred candidate, Gbajabiamila, who later emerged Majority Leader in a major compromise. Highly agitated supporters of the Speaker are also blaming their current difficulty in the South-West on Deputy-Speaker, Yusuf Lasun’s inability to act as a rallying point for the zone. As it is the case with the North-West, lawmakers from the South-West zone appended their signature to a document seeking an end to budget padding in the House sent round by an earlier group that transformed to the Transparency Group, before the Sallah break. The Transparency Group in its first public outing, called for external investigations into Jibrin’s allegations
Despite some lawmakers expressing surprise that the Transparency Group presented their names as part of those calling for anti-corruption agencies to investigate allegations of budget padding they nevertheless, are holding out on removing their signatures in order to extract concrete pledges from the House leadership.
The notion that Team Dogara doesn’t have strong connections with governors from both the North-West and the South-west has also made it difficult for them to get more signatures.
According to sources, even with the snub from the South-West and the North-West, pro Dogara lawmakers are fighting on, by calling and meeting with colleagues to convince them to fully support the Speaker. This is in order to foreclose any form of revolt that may lead to lawmakers openly calling for the Speaker to resign when the House resumes or should the Speaker be compelled to reconvene the House.
Introduction of religious politics
Though pro -Dogara lawmakers say that the Speaker has gathered over 200 signatures and probably has enough backing to stave off any real threat to his seat, members have confessed that the battle for signatures was a hard one, which saw lawmakers using whichever argument they felt would win and keep supporters. Though historically, maintaining the federal character and geo-political balance with religion also being an unmentioned factor, due to its sensitive nature, is key in the sharing positions and even chairmanship of Standing Committees, faith became a salient issue in battle for Dogara’s survival. The Speaker doesn’t hide his Christian faith and a few of his supporters, especially those from Christian minorities in the North used this to whip some indifferent lawmakers into line. And Jibrin hasn’t found this funny as he strongly denied trying to remove the Speaker because he is Christian. He also alleged that lawmakers were being given $25,000 to sign a register opened at the Speaker’s residence to get him a vote of confidence. “Part of the grand plan is also to blackmail me on the religious line.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara forgot that it was me , a Muslim that spearheaded his election despite all the challenges I faced”, Jibrin said in his statement last Sunday. But this paper gathered that it has been Dogara’s supporters who felt that it was important to get northern Christians behind the Speaker. A lawmaker from a North-Central told Sunday Sun this much.
He said: “The Speaker has good attributes. I am not a newcomer, so I will tell you that he is more hardworking than the first Speaker I met in the House. Dogara works hard, treating files, talking with lawmakers over bills and motions, doing little politicking and that’s what has gotten him to this sticky situation he has found himself.
I have spoken to colleagues who complained that they had to wait for hours to see the Speaker, only to find out he was treating files and couldn’t spare them a minute or two. Dogara might be too modest to tell people, but I have been telling colleagues that as northern Christians, we have to rally around him, that we shouldn’t let his case be like that of Patricia Etteh, whose fate was decided partly based on her faith. I wasn’t in the House, during Etheh’s time but I found out from people here, that her fate was decided outside the country during pilgrimage and isn’t it worrisome that the same thing is about playing out now? Some people returned from pilgrimage and started asking for things they ever did before”. But another ranking lawmaker from the South-East told Sunday Sun though the religious angle was sold to him, he didn’t buy it and even as he told the colleague who made the approach, that he signed up to support the Speaker to protect the independence of the legislature. “Yes, someone mentioned that Dogara was a Christian like me and I needed to support him. But I reminded him that those whose names are being bandied around are Christians and Muslims and when deals are struck, people don’t remember they are not of the same region. I told the person that called me, that I will sign to give the Speaker a vote of confidence to ensure that the National Assembly’s power of appropriation isn’t eroded or usurped under any guise now or in the future. As a ranking member, I feel the obligation to bequeath to Nigerian democracy a National Assembly that fully expresses its power of appropriations”, he stressed.
Jibrin, Transparency Group insist on Dogara’s resignation
Meanwhile, speaking with Sunday Sun in a telephone interview, one of the arrowheads of the Transparency Group, Abubakar Chika (Niger-APC) stated that Jibrin’s call for Dogara to step aside was in order. He also disclosed that the group was investigating the allegation that members were handed $25,000 to line up behind the Speaker. He said: “We are trying to establish facts around the issue of members signing to pass a vote of confidence on the Speaker. We want to find out if it is true that money is involved, though you will agree that someone cannot just make allegations when he doesn’t have any proof”. Chika went further to describe the collation of signatures as a “crime” against Nigerians, who voted in members of the National Assembly. “I think the collation of signature is the biggest crime we can commit against the people that sent us to this place. When there is any wrong doing by any human being, I think the first thing is not to give him a vote of confidence, not to become your own Lord and Lord of the people that sent you here. Members of the National Assembly do not enjoy immunity and on no ground, I repeat on no ground are lawmakers immune to investigation. The Federal Government can and I hope it institutes a panel of investigation…it has powers to investigate the wastage and manipulation in the constituency projects and the issue of other phantom projects inserted in the budget by the immediate past administration and the current budget”. On why the group is keen on the Speaker stepping aside ,he said: “I absolutely agree with Jibrin because any honourable human being that is accused, if he is wrong or right, the moment he knows that certain things went wrong, then he should resign. There is no way, the Speaker can deny that he didn’t insert projects in his constituency beyond the reasonable manner. Hence he knows he has done this beyond the reasonable manner, even if it is not a crime, he should honourably resign. Again when you look at it from the angle that Jibrin said the insertions took place after the House passed the budget, it is now a case of forgery”.
Ogor drags Jibrin to court
While some lawmakers might have shied away from confronting Jibrin, one person that has pointedly countered the allegations of the former chairman is the House Minority Leader. Ogor who has not stopped describing Jibrin’s allegations as a tissue of lies. And he told Sunday Sun in a phone interview that he has contacted his lawyers to commence the legal process, adding that he had received the blessings of his constituents to head to court to clear his name. His words: “As I speak with you, I am in Delta state, because as the representative of the people of Isoko Federal Constituency, I came to brief them in respect of recent events in the National Assembly. They know who I am, and they looked at the issue and have given me overwhelming support. They passed a vote of confidence on me and they asked me to take all necessary legal action to address these issues”. The lawmaker who sounded confident, stressed that Jibrin lied about his tinkering with the budget of the Niger-Delta ministry and he would prove this in court. “First he said I mutilated the budget of the ministry of Niger-Delta and that I inserted projects. Whatever way Abdulmumin described what he said happened has affected my hard earned reputation as a lawmaker and he has indirectly addressed me like a criminal. As I get back to Abuja I will start talking to my lawyers and I think he (Abdulmumin) should start preparing because, he will have to defend himself. I definitely will not sit down and allow anyone to destroy the high reputation I have earned as a lawmaker for the past 13 years. I will make sure that I take him, (Abdulmumin) to a competent court of justification to come and prove how I, Hon. Leo Okuweh Ogor in conjunction with Speaker Dogara, the Deputy Speaker and the Chief Whip, with the Clerk of the House took the budget to tinker with it”, he said. Ogor pleaded with Nigerians to look at the 2016 budget, saying they would discover that Jibrin is far from being right. “I have been calling on Nigerians to look at the budget of the Niger-Delta ministry. It is a public document that anyone can obtain and read. When they do, they will see that my constituency has only one project under the ministry and this project had long been approved by the Federal Executive Council as far back as 2014. I didn’t add one single project in the 2016 budget, Jibrin will have to come to court to prove the contrary. By the time we get to court, we will find out who actually removed money from the ministry’s budget”.
……Why PDP lawmakers are backing Dogara
Majority of members elected under the People Democratic Party (PDP) Sunday Sun spoke to indicated their support for Ogor, who heads the party’s Caucus and the Speaker. The PDP practically got Dogara who de-camped from the party to APC into office as Speaker, and he reciprocated by appointing 45 chairmen of Standing Committees from his former party, to the chagrin of APC lawmakers. The main opposition Party has remained the major support base for Dogara. This is even as some have said that Jibrin’s inclusion of Ogor’s name in his short list of those who padded the budget earned the Speaker, the backing of the main opposition. But the Minority Leader disagrees, arguing that PDP lawmakers chose who to support based on the reputation of all enveloped by the controversy.
His words: “The beautiful thing is that members of the PDP Caucus and maybe ,even majority of all members, know who Abdulmumin is. And there is this strong saying that, show me your friends and I will tell you, who you are. I don’t blame those who have believed the cheap lies he is peddling around.
Okafor speaks on health budget
Another lawmaker that is calling for a second look at Jibrin’s allegations is Chairman Committee on Health Services, Chike Okafor. The lawmaker said Nigerians ought to have noticed a trend -that Jibrin picks on those he sees as enemies and lawmakers who have responded to his allegations. The Imo lawmaker told Sunday Sun that he fell out with the former chairman following his refusal to insert a N1 billion cottage hospital for his Bebeji-Kiru Federal Constituency in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Health.
The lawmaker turned the tables against Jibrin, demanding that he explain where the money for a N500 million hospital project in his constituency came from , as none of the three Health related Committees is in the know of this project. Okafor who stressed that there was not a single project under the Health ministry in his Ehime Mbano/Ihitte Uboma/ Obowo Federal Constituency also explained that the Health minister, defended the ministry’s budget jointly to his committee, the Committee on Health Institutions as well as the Committee on AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Okafor said: “He accused me of unilaterally working on the budget on health; my ‘personal estate’ he called it. And I really wondered- has this man really been with us in the House of Representatives in body or in hologram?
“Even if his senses fail him, his eyes and ears should have told him that we have three committees of Health that oversight the Ministry of Health namely; Committee on Health Institutions; Committee on Aids Tuberculosis & Malaria and Committee on Healthcare Services which I am the Chairman. “For clarity, I wish to state that the three committees often meet jointly with the minister and on the budget preparation; we jointly met with the minister and unanimously came to agreement that the ministry was barely meeting its obligations with the resources allocated to it”.
A regretful Dogara?
Ogor is not the only one that is seeking legal redress over the budget padding scandal. Dogara had on Tuesday July 26 issued a seven-day ultimatum to Jibrin, demanding he apologises and retracts his statements or be sued for libel. But the former chairman has kept his vow not to apologise even as the ultimatum expired on Tuesday, August 2. Chorus among the lawmakers Sunday Sun spoke to was that, they and others warned Dogara against appointing Jibrin as chairman of the Appropriations Committee because they guessed the Speaker wanted to reward Jibrin for nominating him and supporting him become the number 4 citizen of the country. “If I were the Speaker, I would be regretting why I appointed that guy as chairman of the Appropriations Committee even more that I and many others warned him against doing this.
When a former Speaker heard who Dogara appointed as Appropriations Committee chairman, he practically wept. The same with a former respected minister of finance. Both of them know what they suffered under this guy in the 7th assembly. But now, we all just have to help the Speaker and hope he listens to wise counsel next time”. Still speaking on what could be the state of mind of the Speaker and the mood among lawmakers, another member said: “Dogara is someone I can describe as very circumspect, that’s why some of us still look back at what could have made him appoint someone most people avoid as chairman of probably the most important committee. Did he think he should reward him or tame him with the committee? Nobody can tell what went through Dogara’s mind as he made that decision, we are now battling to ensure that it not recorded as a fatal decision for him.”