The President’s acquisition of powers to spend the cash allocated to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, the states under a state of emergency, has been rejected by the main opposition party and senior lawyers.
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and senior lawyers faulted yesterday the wide powers granted Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
The ACN warned that “unless this despotic tendency is checked, nothing prevents the President, in the name of the ongoing fight against Boko Haram, from extending this power grab to other states that catch his fancy.”
“This is dangerous and must be checked in the interest of our democracy,” the party said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The National Assembly yesterday granted Jonathan sweeping powers to spend funds belonging to the states and local governments under the state of emergency.
This followed the Senate, and the House of Representatives’ adoption of the conference report on the state of emergency proclamation 2013.
The Senate had on May 21 approved wholesale proclamation of a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, but the House endorsed the measure with some level of caution.
The new position of the lawmakers negated the initial stance of the House of Representatives that Jonathan should not utilise funds accruing to the states.
The House had on Tuesday deleted 3(2e) of the emergency proclamation gazette, which states that the President can “provide for the utilisation of the funds of any State or local government in the emergency area”.
But the Senate’s endorsement of the Clause created a difference which the two chambers inaugurated a conference committee to harmonise.
The committee settled for the Senate’s version, which empowers the President to “provide for the utilisation of the funds of any state or local government in the emergency area.”
Yesterday, the two chambers adopted the Senate’s version empowering the President to utilise funds accruing to the states under emergency.
The House’s creation in Section 2(h) that “provides for the payment of compensation to victims of terrorism on or before the emergency proclamation” was deleted.
The Senate’s Clause, which “provides for the maintenance of such supplies and services as the President considers essential to the lives of persons in the emergency area”, was adopted.
Also, Senate’s version in Clause 4, which provides that “The President shall, as soon as reasonably practicable after an Order has been made under these Regulations, transmit any copy of the Order to each House of the National Assembly for approval and if the National Assembly disallows the Order, it shall cease to have effect without prejudice to anything done thereunder”, was adopted.
The House’s version, which specified time lag of “within seven days”, was thrown out.
Members of the House, on Tuesday, amended three of the clauses of the gazetted regulations.
While defending the House’s position on the issue of state funds, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Victor Ogene, said the House’s position was to protect democratic tenets and accountability.
His said: “There are democratic tenets that must still be protected and this is why we have certain differences in the versions passed. There was a familiar trend that ran through our debate on the proclamation.”
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