Mr. Eseme Eyiboh, former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information is the Dean of The Initiatives, and in this interview, discusses various national issues on behalf of the group.
What do you make of the rumble in the House of Representatives over allegations of budget padding?
The difference between democracy and military government is the existence of the rule of law. The rule of law primarily is the dividends of democracy and not necessarily the construction of roads or building of houses because the military government also constructs roads.
What democracy brings are the liberty and the inherent freedom and rights. That is to mean that without the rule of law, there can be no democracy. And where is the rule of law domiciled? It is domiciled in Section 4, sub-section 1, which has vested in the legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a National Assembly consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives.
So, appropriation is part and parcel of that legislative process. It is a law that originates from that legislative power. Even in that, the primary functions of the legislature is of course the issues of legislation, appropriation and oversight. The constitution intended for the people to participate in consonance with Article 25 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. Participation is very key. And how does the constitution or democracy encourage participation? It is encouraged by making the legislature to be at its best. For example, no law should be passed without going through the legislative processes like first, second and third readings as well as committees stage and public hearing.
To what level does the people’s input count in the legislative process?
The intention of all the readings, committee stage and public hearing is to allow the people to participate. The people’s input is part of the legislative process. So, the responsibility of lawmaking can never be complete without the peoples’ participation. When the budget proposal is brought, the executive will engage the legislature and the legislature, through its various committees, will reach out to the people.
The importance of the legislature is so strong to the point that if the processes are not followed, we are inviting anarchy because the executive will sit down and say that it is going to construct road and the president will cash in on this to construct road in his state or zone; the vice president will put project in his area and the ministers will put projects in their respective areas but for you and I, who may not have the opportunity of having any of these persons, we will have to wait for our turn. And if by providence, you end up coming from a minority, you will wait for a longer time. So, the only thing that democracy has brought to us is the issue of constituency projects or zonal intervention.
But most Nigerians are not disposed to issue of constituency projects as it is seen as an avenue for the legislators to enrich themselves.
The issue here is not the zonal intervention or the semantics of whether constituency or zonal intervention. The issue is its relevance or impact on the generality of the people. That does not take the fact there may not be indiscretions and abuses. But like they normally ask: Must we throw away the baby with the bath water? The answer is no. So, what I am trying to say is that the Nigerian public is having poor perception on the institution of the legislature.
I am not speaking on behalf of the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara or the former chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin. I am talking about the institution. If we allow an individual to bring down an institution that protects and preserves my right and your right, my liberty and your liberty, we have ended up at denying ourselves the opportunity to participate in governance. When appropriation takes place, the executive does the implementation. But if a project is appropriated for and its implementation fails, then an offence has been committed. The question would be: Why was fund allocated for the project and it was not executed? That comes to the principle of law that says that for a crime to be committed, the intention and act must be in marriage.
There are calls in some quarters for an investigation into the budget scandal. What is your take on that?
You cannot investigate an appropriation act because appropriation in itself is an assumptive document because you can’t have 100 per cent execution of these assumptions because it is just to guide government on implementation of its policies and programmes. I think that it is the outcome of that perception problem to single out an individual in an institutional process. Majority of Nigerians are still living with that illusion that there should be no legislature.
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