Farouk Lawan is a pint size legislator, a member of the House of Representatives who approached legislative matters the way of a giant. If the story of legislature in current Fourth Republic is to be told in a compendium, more than two-thirds of the pages would be devoted to the memorable roles this egregious lawmaker played in the Dome.

The first day some legislators referred to Farouk as an elephant, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo laughed his head silly at a meeting with legislators, so much that he had to wipe his eyes with the back of his arm to mop the droplets of tears provoked by the hilarious laughter.

But Farouk commanded the loudest voice, and exhibited some unthinkable character traits too large for his size to carry. He was famous and reputable. And the rest of the world recognised him too. That was between 1999 and 2005.

Farouk Lawan does not shine anymore, not even with the Houses Committee on Education that he chairs. If there was anything he ever enjoyed to the fullest as a representative, it was perhaps the memorable experiences which laid up his sleeves in those good old days as a lawmaker from Kano, who spearheaded the plot to impeach former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, as a hater of Obasanjo, was the masterminds of the plot. He only dragged Farouk to anchor it.

As the arrowhead of impeachment plot against OBJ, he ensured that the House of Representatives compiled 18 impeachable offences against the then president. Obasanjo made a terse response, against the plot, and told the legislators, ‘I dey Kampe’. Farouk Lawan got angry and within a spate of few weeks, he raised the impeachable offences against OBJ to 48. He scared the day light out of Obasanjo who took to fasting to escape the looming hammer. At first, Obasanjo was shaking like a jelly, but got mad when the offences against him were raised to 48. Then, he reverted to his old self; a soja man, and began to growl and roar. ‘Enough is enough,’ he told Farouk and his co-plotters, just as he referred to the plot against him as ‘a joke carried too far.’ From the day of that pronouncement, Obasanjo moved heavily against the plotters, and the egregious part of Farouk Lawan began to dwindle.

The story is simple. The central issue in the plot to impeach Obasanjo, as emphasised by the legislators, was poor attitude by the executive arm to budget issues.They accused him of meddling in the affairs of the legislature with the way he usually prune every budget passed on to him for assent. Yet, Obasanjo would have his way leaving the National Assembly to grumble. The fight Obasanjo had with the lawmakers all through his reign was the boldness he mustered in calling them names over national budgets. He had only refrained from calling the legislators thieves with the way they turned around to bloat up the overall figure of budget he passed onto them for approval.

Obasanjo had a style of relating with the legislators over budgets blown beyond proportions during process of passage. He would choose parts of what he proposed only for implementation and leave the parts infused ‘illegally’ by the lawmakers untouched. Obasanjo managed the National Assembly effectively because he could growl and roar very audibly. Since his exit from power, Nigeria had not experienced a growling and roaring president.

The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, address the problem of budget inflation by lawmakers the Obasanjo way. The then president would only use subtle approach to implement his own side of the budget and ignore fatter figures imposed by the Dome. That is where President Goodluck Jonathan appears to differ. Since he became president, Jonathan has been having running battles with the legislators because he has not mastered the art of addressing the problem unrealistic budget at the instance of the lawmakers. That explains the confusion that has been trailing the 2010 budget even few months to the end of this fiscal year.

Jonathan has proposed supplementary appropriations times in quick succession to set the 2010 budget right, and yet, solution appears not to be in sight. He has been asking for drastic cut in the budget to the chagrin of the legislators on account that the initial bench mark proposed for financing the budget has consistently been falling out of expectation.

Under Jonathan, National Budget appears jinxed. The funny aspect of it is that Jonathan keeps smiling to the legislators each time he wants them to do a serious work. The present crop of legislators don’t require that kind of smiles. Truly, they want fat pays because of the coming elections, yet, Nigeria is almost flat broke.

If Jonathan cannot employ the tactics of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, let him learn how to squirm, when relating with the legislators on budget matters. If he will not do that, then let him not grumble when legislators begin to ask for the total sum of national budget as their take home.