By Ben Agande & Inalegwu Shaibu
ABUJA—GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday,  defied all entreaties to apologise to the National Assembly over statements credited to him that the National Assembly spending constituted 25 per cent of the overhead of the Federal Government budget insisting that he would “quit without a fight” if he was asked to do so by the National Assembly.

This is just as a leading member of the National Assembly last night told Vanguard that the budget for the legislature was 17 per cent of the total overhead budget of the Federal Government.

Mallam Sanusi who appeared before the Senate Committees on Appropriation, Banking and Finance  as well as the MDG insisted that the figures he used to arrive at the conclusion was provided by the Budget Office.

But the Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga who also appeared before the Senate over comments credited to him in the media that the National Assembly budget would be slashed denied making such statement and admitted that the figure used by the CBN governor did not represent the correct figure of Federal Government’s overhead spending.

Summoning of minister and CBN governor

The Senate on Tuesday summoned the Central Bank Governor and the Minister of Finance to appear before its committees to clarify statements credited to them  which were deemed unflattering of the Senate.

While delivering a lecture at the University of Benin, weekend, the CBN governor was quoted as saying that a situation whereby 25 per cent of the overhead of the Federal Government was spent by the National Assembly was unhealthy for the country and its economy.

GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Speaking on the topic “Growth Prospects for the Nigerian Economy”, Sanusi  was quoted as saying “if you look at the budget, the bulk of government revenue expenditure is on over head, that is a big problem.  25 per cent of overhead of the Federal Government goes to the National Assembly.

We need power, we need infrastructure so we need to start looking at the structure of expenditure and make it more consistent with the development initiative of the country.”

But appearing before the Senate committees, yesterday, the Minister of Finance, who testified before the Governor of the Central Bank, denied ever saying he would slash the budget of the National Assembly.

He said: “I did not, could not, would not make that statement. I did n ot make any statement to the press in any place at any event that I believe could be misconstrued to be written this way.”

But the Central Bank governor  whose testimony lasted more than two hours said his conclusion was arrived at based on information provided by the Budget Office of the Federation and that he was convinced that he had not done any thing wrong so he would not apologise.

Sanusi said: “First of all let’s talk about the text of what I said and the context. If you read the story and not the headlines, many of the newspapers have what I said as quotation. Now take the Vanguard.

Vanguard says ‘National Assembly drains the economy, gulps 25 percent of the recurrent expenditure’ on page one and if you read the story, you come to page 5, it is quoting me in quotation mark. “If you look at the budget, the bulk of government spending is on recurrent expenditure, that is a big problem. 25 percent of the overhead of the Federal Government goes to the National Assembly. 25 percent of over head of the Federal Government goes to the National Assembly that is what is said in quotation mark.

If you go the Tribune, ‘the government is in trouble’ from page one, if you look at the budget the bulk of government spending on recurrent expenditure, that is a big problem, 25 percent of over head of Federal Government goes to National Assembly.” I saw the same quote in The Nation. 25 percent of over head of Federal Government goes to National Assembly.

“I confirm  Mr. Chairman that I did say in my speech at the Igbinedion University that 25 percent of the overhead of the Federal Government goes to National Assembly. I have figures from the Office of Budget for the year 2010.

Total government overhead is N536, 268, 49, 280. Total overhead of the National Assembly is N136, 259, 768, 112 which is exactly 25.1 percent of Federal Government overhead. The overhead of the National Assembly as a percentage of the Federal Government budget in 2009 was 19. 87 and in 2008 was 14.19.

Growth prospect

“I think it was important for us to say what context that statement was made. I was giving a lecture on the growth prospect of the Nigerian economy, I talked about financial plans, economic policies, banking system and government finances and as the Finance Minister has mentioned. If you look at the structure of government financing especially in 2008 and 2009, we have had a rapid increase in recurrent expenditure and decline in capital expenditure. I was warning against this.

“By my upbringing, if I’m wrong, I don’t need to be told to come and say I’m wrong and I would apologise. By my nature, if I am not convinced that I’m wrong, I do not apologise and this is really where the point is.  I gave a number and I said where this number came from. I did not abuse anyone. I did not attack anyone.

I did not say anybody stole money. I was not given a chance to say the context in which I gave this number.
“Nobody has heard my side of the story on why that number came in; why the 25 percent came up… There’s need to reduce the overheads, to reduce the expenditure, especially in government spending. I would like to add that I also spoke about government subsidy on the petroleum sector; I spoke about the banking system but the newspapers decided that this was the bit they wanted to talk about.

“I did not go there to talk about the National Assembly. The reference to NASS was just one sentence, in a two and a half hour lecture.”

The Central Bank governor who noted that it was part of his responsibility to speak against some noticeable problems in the economy, said: “If democracy must survive, we must correct existing weaknesses. It is part of the independence of the CBN for the governor to speak his mind on any economic issue.”

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Omisore Iyiola read from the 2010 Budget of the federation and asked the Finance Minister whether the  figure upon which the governor of the Central Bank arrived at his conclusion was correct and accused the CBN governor of deliberately refusing to include the N660.8 billion of service-wide votes which are also included in Federal Government overheads for 2010.

The minister admitted that although overheads did not include salaries and emoluments, “I confirm that we normally include service-wide votes with the overheads.”

The Appropriation committee chairman, Senator Omisore explained  that a calculation of N536.2 billion and N660.8 billion means that the Federal Government alone collects more than N1.3 trillion for overheads.
He accused the CBN governor of deliberately trying to mislead nigerians by giving out false information, adding: “Based on wrong computing, you  have embarrassed not only the NASS but also Nigerians.

We have given you figures and you are still relying on the figures that are not before us. I thank you all for coming.”

‘National Assembly budget is 17 per cent’

A leading member of the National Assembly last night told Vanguard that the budget for the National Assembly was 17 per cent of the total overhead budget of the Federal Government. He said that of the N4.4 trillion federal budget, N3 trillion is recurrent while N 1.4 trillion is for capital projects which the executive arm of government has only been able to implement 30 per cent.

He said that of the N3 trillion recurrent budget, N540 billion was the national overhead while what the National Assembly took on it was 17 per cent.

The source said: “National Assembly budget is N110bn or three per cent of national recurrent which is N3 trillion. So the National Assembly budget is even 17 per cent of Federal Government overhead not 25 per cent as claimed by the CBN Governor.”

He said the CBN Governor lied to the nation and admitted over stating his calculation by N2billion when he appeared before the legislators.