Monday’s rejection of the N46 billion supplementary budget by the Lagos State House of Assembly has again ignited debate over the cat and mouse relationship between the lawmakers and the Governor Babatunde Fashola-led government. Where does this leave the people of the state in terms of more developments? BANJI ALUKO writes.

THOSE who think that the calm that seems to pervade Lagos State at the moment is like the peace of the graveyard may not be wrong after all!

After all the intrigues between the legislature and the executive which characterised the beginning of this year, extending to the second quarter of the year, the ripples appeared to have settled as the two sides ceased fire especially in the media.

However, the fire might have been stoked again on Monday when the Adeyemi Ikuforiji-led House of Assembly pointedly rejected the N46 billion supplementary budget proposal which was brought before the lawmakers by the Mr. Babatunde Fashola-led executive arm of government.

Through a letter dated March 22, 2010, the executive had demanded the Assembly to reconsider some of the observations it made in the Appropriation Act towards making what it called “necessary amendments to enable the state to discharge its obligations to employees, contractors and other service providers and in particular, to pursue strategic agriculture initiatives to stimulate jobs and provide security of food, particularly staples and vegetables in the short to medium term.”

On personnel cost, the governor had requested N10bn to the approved sum of N45.079bn.

On special expenditure, he asked for additional N3bn to the initial N5.5bn and on Works and Infrastructure, the Executive had demanded additional N2bn to the N5bn which was earlier approved for the office of works and N11bn to be added to the approved N39bn for the office of Infrastructure.

For agricultural projects, it requested for N2.7bn as an addition to the approved sum of N1bn for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to cater for rice and vegetable product projects.

It also asked for N32bn as financing requirements to be added to the approved sum of N54bn as the fund needed to match finance for the year 2010 budget to forestall shortfall.

The Assembly had earlier in the year reduced the proposed 2010 budget of N429.5bn by N40bn and approved N389.57bn for the state.

This time around, the Assembly did not take its decision without backing it up with what it presented as due diligence before it took the action.

The Chairman, House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Korede Osusanya, while presenting the committee report to the House, said that the reduction of about N40bn was necessary in order to block some leakages noted in the previous year’s budget.

The committee said it “observed a wide difference between the amount approved for personal cost in year 2009, and the amount released.

The committee further said that the amount earmarked as overhead cost for 2009 was far above what was spent, and therefore saw no need increasing the overhead cost for 2010.

The high debt profile of the state government, was another factor given by the House in reducing the capital expenditure for the current year.

Despite the reductions, the House, however, saw nothing wrong in adding N3.2bn to the overhead cost of the state House of Assembly and N1.418bn to that of the state Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

Already, analysts are beginning to link the budget imbroglio to what they describe as political vendetta against Fashola and members of his team in the executive arm of government in the state.

For instance, some are of the feeling that if not on revenge mission, the Assembly could have at least, approved what it deemed fit out of the entire N46 billion instead of throwing out the entire request through the window.

Those who had followed the battle between the two arms of government since the bubble burst at the presentation of the budget last year by the governor would easily conclude that the combatants appear to have gone back to the trenches; this time around waiting for the governor at the point of his demand for more funds to execute more of his projects which are the basis for the rave reviews of his performance in three years of the administration.

The Speaker’s vituperations against the governor at the occasion of the budget presentation to the lawmakers had set the tone for the ongoing acrimony.

In the budget that was presented in November, Fashola had promised that no project or programme would be abandoned by his administration, adding that there would be emphasis on the maintenance of public order and safety.

He had stated, “We are already reaping in this budget the benefit of our previous massive investment in key agencies and sectors. Our sustained investments in agencies such as the Lagos State Waste Management Authority, Lagos State Water Corporation and others have enhanced their capacity to run on their own strength, therefore, actually reducing overhead costs on these agencies in the 2010 budget.

“We are also placing greater emphasis on the 2010 budget in improving the quality of life in our rural areas, particularly through agriculture-based micro-finance funding under the existing framework of the Lagos State Micro-Finance Initiative.

“The objective is to boost the rural economy, create rural based employment and encourage more people to stay within their environment, which will enjoy greater local economic buoyancy.”

As it turned out, Fashola’s speech at the presentation was to be met with what many had described as outburst of bottled up emotions when he told the governor despite all the accolades being showered on him from across the country over his performance, there were still many areas of the state crying for attention.

The speaker had stated, “The real measure of your performance will be known after your exit from office. Most of those who claim to love you the most today, we remember, were those who nearly fought your predecessor and his loyalists to a standstill when it became clear that your predecessor gave his full support for you to succeed him. They threatened fire and brimstone if you were made the candidate of our great party, the Action Congress.

“Today, you are the toast and they will even tell the gullible that nothing was good before you got in as the governor. They will tell you nothing good happened to Lagos State before you became governor. They will flatter you to no end. They will like to isolate you from your roots. They will want you to believe that your administration is the first in the world to hit the ground running and achieve like no one else. But like Danny K. Davies (Jnr), a United States Congressman told us at the convention of Eko Club International last month in Chicago and I quote: ‘Flattery is like a good perfume, it is to be smelt, not to be swallowed.’”

But then, many people are of the opinion that Ikuforiji had merely delivered a message given to him by Fashola’s predecessor, former Governor Bola Tinubu, who is believed to be ill at ease with the governor’s focus on service delivery while relegating political intrigues to the background. Even if the two parties had papered over the cracks within the family, it was that presentation drama that stripped naked the fire in the underbelly of the Action Congress government in the state.

With the lawmakers’ rejection of the supplementary budget, some have reasoned that there are more to the rejection than the reasons provided by the Assembly for its action. For instance, if the foremost reason for the additional fund request is to execute more development projects and complete those already initiated by the Executive, analysts are of the view that the Speaker must have contradicted the position of his House which he espoused during the budget presentation last year to the effect that many areas of the state were still yearning for more of the infrastructure upgrades going at the select areas of the state.

Sources say that the argument of the lawmakers over the intention to borrow N26 billion out of the proposed N46 billion holds no water before the Executive as the usual gap between the realisable income and needed expenditure is usually bridged with funds sourced from various legal instruments like bonds or borrowing from financial institutions which exist and readily willing to fund such demands from government institutions.

The manner of the rejection also reeks of an attempt to halt the development of Lagos. Fashola, obviously, is not unaware of the deficit between the budget and the state’s income but had over time highlighted how he planned to balance the books.

For example, the state is believed to get N16 billion internally generated revenue monthly while it receives N7 billion from the Federation Account every month. Of course, that gives the state an annual income of N276 billion yearly.

Going by the N389.57 billion that was approved by lawmakers in the Appropriation Act from the original N429 billion presented by the governor, there is a gap of N113 billion which was expected to be financed through legal instruments since the government cannot print money to execute its programmes.

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Babatunde Fatundu, while recognising the right of the lawmakers to check possible excesses of the Executive, reasoned that it would be counter-productive if the lawmakers allow political sentiments to get in the way of logical reasoning over the supplementary budget.

He said, “Those watching the cat and mouse relationship between Fashola and the lawmakers especially since the close of last year would easily conclude that this latest faceoff is a continuation of the battle.

“But one must state here that it would be unpatriotic for elected people to stand in the way of the governor  from executing projects that have made him the toast of every Nigerian irrespective of their political party affiliations. Good reasoning must prevail.”

A project consultant, Engineer Dare Aikulola, said starving the Executive of the much needed fund at this critical stage of Fashola’s administration would be seen as a deliberate attempt by the lawmakers to halt development in the state.

“Of course, the Assembly members will be digging their grave because what that would translate to is that they are directly standing in the way of the people who put them there. Are the roads, drainages, street lights, well-paved lawns being provided not done with money? Does the executive arm of government print money to carry out projects?”

A resident of Lagos, Mrs Tolulope Fawumi, while reacting to the reduction in the supplementary budget, said that residents of Lagos will be the loosers at the end of the day.

He said, “Increased funding means more projects will be embarked upon and more projects means that there will be facelift in the living standard of Lagosians. They should not have reduced the budget since the governor had already pointed out that the deficit will be covered through other means.”