The president has severally given out monies to state governments across the country to help them solve their financial challenges outside the purview of approved national budget since he came on board in 2015.
The constitution forbids the president from spending any money accruing to the federation account without appropriation by the National Assembly.
Doing so is considered an impeachable offence.
At Thursday’s plenary, the issue of the bailout funds given to state governments by President Buhari as well as the disbursement of the Paris Club refund came up on the floor of the Senate, with a unanimous decision taken by the lawmakers that the next legislative day will be set aside to look into the action which majority of them considered as an infraction of the constitutional provision.
Totally, the president is said to have disbursed about N1.9 trillion to state governments without seeking approval of the National Assembly.
Senator Samuel Anyanwu at Thursday plenary, raised a point of order to draw the attention of the Senate to the fact that President Buhari has been dipping his hands into the nation’s treasury without getting the permission from the National Assembly.
Aside querying the legality of the funds given out by the president, Anyanwu also raised the question on the identity of the parliament or individual who gave approval to President Muhammadu Buhari to spend money from the federation account.
Senate President Bukola Saraki noted that the point of order raised by Anyanwu was germane and therefore sought the permission of his colleagues to grant the permission to Anyanwu to consider a substantive motion on the issue in the next legislative day which was unanimously accepted.
The parliament is expected to reconvene on Tuesday for plenary business.
Records showed that the president has released about N243.7 billion as Paris Club Refund to states, while his government has given out about N1.75 trillion since 2015 as bailout under different guises since 2015.
The refund is in respect of over-deductions on Paris Club, London Club loans and multilateral debts between 1995 and 2002.
Records show that in 2015, a salary loan of about N338 billion was disbursed to states. The term of the loan was 20-year and the purpose of the loan was to help states facing fiscal strain meet outstanding salary obligations. Interest rate of 9% was approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This was swiftly followed by the N575 billion restructuring programme bond.
The Federal Government negotiated this debt package through the Debt Management Office (DMO) to allow states convert high interest bank debt into a 20-year tenured debt with interest rate set at 14.83%.
Again, in July 2015, the Federal Government remitted approximately N92.18 billion to states from dividends worth $2.1 billion paid to the centre by Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG).
In July 2016, the Federal Government endorsed the allocation of N3.6 billion from solid minerals savings to states as part of the routine monthly FAAC disbursements.
A total of N117.3 billion was also disbursed to states, amount taken from excess revenue generated from Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT). The sum, ordinarily, should go into the Excess Crude Account, but it was speedily distributed between the federal and state governments.
-Independent.ng
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