By Aaron Ossai
Civil society group operating under the aegis of Movement for Effective Legislature and Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria (MELSDN), has called on the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC) to take advantage of the general acceptability of the current Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara across political parties and throw its weight behind him as the Speaker of the 10th Assembly.
The group in a statement made available to parliamentary reporters on Sunday in Abuja said that the legislature being a key arm of government in a democracy requires serious institutional memory, courage and a strength of character in the person who presides over its affairs. It said polls conducted nationwide reveals that Betara is the only person who enjoys such a thick clout of respect, credibility and general acceptability across the Members-Elect of the different parties.
According to the release titled: ‘Betara: APC’s Tool for Budget Cycle Sustainability and Bipartisan Consensus’ and signed by the group’s national coordinator, Dr Williams Ndorokpa Martins, “the Legislature is the key organ of government in a democracy, be it presidential or parliamentary. And if the incoming 10th National Assembly will succeed, three factors must be brought into consideration and given greater premiums in our leadership recruitment process, particularly as it affects the 10th House of Representatives. They are: competency, integrity and institutional memory (experience).
“And as the race for the Speakership of the 10th House of Representatives reaches its defining moments, questions have continued to rage regarding the suitability of those who have thrown their hats into the ring. And while all those who have expressed interest in the coveted position have legal rights to such claims, one man has continued to stand out in terms of the impacts his current role in the outgoing Assembly have had in the socioeconomic resilience of Nigeria. He is no other than
Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara.
“Muktar Aliyu Betara, a member of the House of Representatives since 2007, representing Biu/Bayo/Shani and Kwaya Kusar Federal Constituency of Borno State North East Nigeria, is one of the few lawmakers in the National Assembly with concrete experience and core competency. He is the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations in the current 9th Assembly, which was inaugurated on June 11, 2019, where he has comprehensively demonstrated the said attributes above,” the statement said.
According to Dr Martins, the group argued further that aside Representation, Law making and Oversight, Appropriation being one of the four cardinal responsibilities of the legislature, prides itself as the heartbeat of any legislative session or term, given its pivotal place as a major determinant of the nature of relationship that exists between the Legislature and the Executive arm of government.
“There’s no gain saying that since the return to democracy in 1999, successive administrations had altered the course of Nigeria’s fiscal journey at will, with the economy and the citizenry being the resultant casualties arising from poor budget preparations, legislation and implementation.
“With specific reference to the PDP led governments, and the first part of the APC government until 2019, Nigeria has had staggered budget cycle fraught with intra and inter agency and institutional rancour or rivalry which adversely affected the timing of budget presentation, passage and implementation. One of the resultant effects was the commencement of Nigeria’s fiscal calendar from June of a given year, just as there was no certainty in the commencement of a subsequent fiscal year.
