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Another flagrant violation of the Constitution. "...the sum of about N2 trillion, a sum far in excess of the current year's budget of about N1.9 trillion..."

Guardian - Editorial
09/12/2006

The Presidency, the Senate and N2 trillion oil funds.

In June 2006, the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Alhaji Hamman Tukur, officially notified the National Assembly that there were illegal withdrawals from the Excess Crude and Federation Accounts, "for inexplicable reasons". Late last month, the Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning invited senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and other agencies to account for the withdrawal of a whopping sum of $13. 1 billion (or N2 trillion) from the Excess Crude Oil Account, without the knowledge and consent of the National Assembly.

On August 22, 2006, that is, about four months after the national headcount, President Olusegun Obasanjo sent a letter to the Upper House of the National Assembly seeking retrospective or ex post facto legislative approval for the sum of N140 billion, which the Federal Government had allegedly spent in excess of the budgeted 2006 Census expenditure.

Unlike the said N2 trillion which, according to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, was withdrawn from the Excess Crude Oil Account (a public fund), the second withdrawal of the sum of over $1 billion was from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation (CRF), another public fund.

However, like the first withdrawal, the second one was also done without the knowledge or prior approval of the National Assembly as required by the 1999 Constitution. The unambiguous provisions of section 81 (4) of the Constitution states: "If in respect of any financial year it is found that the amount appropriated by the Appropriation Act for any purpose is insufficient; or a need has arisen for expenditure for a purpose for which no amount has been appropriated by the (Appropriation) Act, a supplementary estimate showing the sums required shall be laid before each House of the National Assembly and the heads of any such expenditure shall be included in a Supplementary Bill."

The Presidency flagrantly set these unequivocal provisions at nought and proceeded to withdraw a total sum of $1,062, 591,071.85 (or about N148,762,750,052.00) from the nation's CRF, without legislative authorisation, allegedly "for the funding of the Power Sector Projects in Nigeria and additional two days of the National Population Census 2006".

Prior to that illegal and unconstitutional withdrawal from the CRF, there was another illegal and unconstitutional withdrawal of the said sum of $13.1 billion (or about N2 trillion), which Mrs. Nenadi Usman swore was taken, not from the CRF, but from the Excess Crude Oil Account, a public fund, belonging to all of the three tiers of government - Federal, states and local councils.

The Minister of Finance gave the wrong impression that as long as the withdrawal was not from the CRF, the Federal Government had a carte blanche to do whatever it wanted with the excess crude oil bonanza.

It might be pertinent to point out at this juncture that the so-called "Excess Crude Oil Account" is an illegal Account, representing a breach of section 162(1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution. In defiance of these clear provisions, the Federal Government unilaterally created a so-called Excess Crude Oil Account from which it withdrew, with impunity, the sum of about N2 trillion, a sum far in excess of the current year's budget of about N1.9 trillion.

It should be noted that section 80 (3) of the constitution warns that: "No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly". Subsection (4) of that section further warns that: "No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly".

There was therefore, no extenuating circumstance in Nenadi Usman's excuse that the said sum of N2 trillion was withdrawn from the Excess Oil Account (a public fund) and not from the CRF (another public fund), or that the Presidency did what it did in consultation with all the governors of the country, as though such consultation was an alternative way of complying with the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

Now, apart from the shocking and blatant infraction of the constitutional provisions by the Presidency with regard to the illegal withdrawals herein complained about, several questions on the over N2.1 trillion withdrawn from both the CRF and the Excess Crude Oil Account beg for answers: Not a few Nigerians have been asking to know, for example, why the sum of $13.1 (or N2 trillion) instead of the $12.1 (or about N1.69 trillion) owed to the Paris Club of Creditors was withdrawn from the so-called Excess Crude Oil Account. How does the Federal Government account for the excess sum of over N0.3 trillion?

Secondly, it would be instructive to know how much was budgeted for the National Population Census, conducted in April this year, and how much was actually spent before the Federal Government decided to withdraw the sum of N140 billion to cover two additional days of the census exercise. Thirdly, it would also be necessary for the government to show how the additional sum of N140 billion was spent in two days.

Fourthly, both the Accountant-General and the Auditor-General of the Federation should furnish the nation with the proof that that stupendous sum was spent within two days on the stated subject? If the said sum of N140 billion was spent in two days, does that mean that the National Population Census 2006 (conducted in seven days) had cost the Federal Government the sum of N490 billion?

The National Assembly should realise that its power to control public expenditure is absolute and that even the courts cannot challenge the decision of the Legislature in this regard (see U.S. v O' Brien 319 US 367 (1968). It should also realise that both the lawmakers and the Executive swore to discharge their duties faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution, which they also swore to preserve, defend and protect.

For good measure, the lawmakers of the National Assembly (2003-2007) will be held accountable for the prodigious sums of money which the Accountant-General of the Federation, acting at the behest of the Executive, has illegally and unconstitutionally caused to be withdrawn from public accounts.

This article can be found at
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article01