Senate probe of N30trn ‘Ways and Means’ budget appropriation

CHARLES ODION IYORE 

Charles Iyore, a partner at DNA Capital, writes from Darenth Kent, England. He can be reached by email at Dioncta@aol.com and +447932945002 (text only)

Past … present … and future 

The Senate’s review of the N30 trillion ‘Ways and Means’ passage by legislative action or executive order, highlights the gaps in the inner workings of the realms of state.

It highlights the weakness of the treasury, the cloud over the treasury select committee of the legislature, and the captive state of the mint. The system seems to have been left to the whims and caprices of the executive (even perhaps the unelected inner pretenders in their courts). A clear carryover of the command and control mind-set of the military.

The probe therefore should not be just about the related circumstances for now, but a comprehensive review of the past, the present and the future. This approach will afford us the opportunity to learn from the past, correct the present and ensure that these lapses do not recur in the future.

This probe coming on the heels of the Senate plenary, debating Senator Ningi’s statement on budget padding, might actually offer our political elite an opportunity to press the reset button of the political system.

For that to happen, there needs to be an elite consensus, starting from the legislature, with a focus on defending the common good, rather than the continuous protection of narrow private/group interests. Turning-off the microphone as Senator Agom Jarigbe queried the constituency project budget allocations, created the wrong impression of selective transparency, which should not be. 

That act of “off the mic” could be seen as validation of former President Obasanjo video, now gone viral, of how constituency projects are inserted in the budget and executed.

Despite the individual foibles evident during the plenary, the refusal of senators to be overly drawn into their comfort zones, of tongue, tribe and creed, saw the first progressive sparks in our political history of issues debate and like the gospel choir will sing, “this little light of ours must be fanned into a flame, to shine and lift us all out of this overhanging veil of darkness.” Congrats to the Senate!

Against the background of the treasury, legislature (treasury select committee) and mint (CBN), painted earlier, it is clear that our sovereigns, over time, have neither had a grip of the currency nor been able to manage the other utilities (common services) well enough, for economic growth.

Going by President Obasanjo’s account, he was also taken captive whilst in office. If the realms of State are taking each other captive, who is fooling who?

Only those in denial of the truth will blame the unending waves of incidents of graft of public funds on individual character flaws – corruption – when clearly what we have is a systemic failure.

In a brilliant article by Tatalo Alamu, published in “The Nation” on Sunday March 17, 2024, titled, Haiti and the future of the Black Person, the writer describes the failure of the State in the Haiti nation as perhaps, “the absence of bureaucratic knowledge, philosophical wherewithal, and the scientific nous, to run a modern government and its state apparatus.”

I wonder how many black nations would fit into that same description. The broad sweep of Tatalo Alamu’s description, is that statecraft is not the foray of single subject exponents no matter how brilliant they are, but a careful assembly of exponents, able to work together to deliver a bureaucracy, driven by the right philosophy and planning with the available technology, to deliver national development.

THINK-TANKS

When the system seems to be all over the place, think-tanks could be useful in creating the kernels around which purposeful administration can be built. 

Tatalo Alamo, the writer, could be at the centre of one such think-tank. The idea of a think-tank is not necessarily a bunch of egg-heads, but those able to bring the bright  ideas coming out of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to a cohesive framework. Many of the operatives in the bureaucracy who have over long periods been without co-ordinated supervision from central planners, often have a narrow view of governance.

They are driven by revenue targets without appropriate planning for capacity building, (a key prerequisite for sustainable growth). Their desire to deploy academic case study scenarios to local challenges, but with a poor understanding of the initial and boundary conditions, often compounds the challenges they are trying to resolve.

• Expatriate levy
• Channels for palliative distribution etc.

We must not be afraid to think our way out of the quagmire.

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