By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama yesterday, came under heavy knocks by angry lawmakers in the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, who bluntly told him that he was very lawless and went ahead to suspend the ministry’s 2023 budget defence until the minister amends his ways.

The committee resolved never to attend to requests from the ministry or consider its budget, until the minister shows enough evidence of his compliance with the Appropriation Act, 2022 and other resolutions by parliament.

The minister and his team were at the Committee, ready to defend the budget proposals of the ministry, but got the shock of his life as the committee Chairman, HON.

“As a creation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the National Assembly, among other duties, is empowered to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of our country (Section 4(2-3) CFRN 1999(as Amended). This function, by extension, also encompasses appropriating funds for MDAs and carrying out oversight functions on such MDAs. (Standing Orders of the House of Representatives Order 12 Rule 19(5)(c) 9th Edition.)

“According to Section 80 (1-4) CFRN 1999(As Amended), the National Assembly possesses the powers to authorise the expenditure of all revenue receipts, including those that have gone into the Consolidated Revenue Fund and to oversight how these funds are spent.

“With the above in mind, it follows that all funds appropriated to MDAs like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others, must be accounted for before the Ministry is able to come to request for another such appropriation, hence this budget defense session.

“One is, therefore, surprised and, indeed, it beats every logic that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has deliberately refused to abide by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by other statutes of the land, including the Standing Orders of the House. The question this Committee is asking the Minister of Foreign Affairs is: Is he bigger than Nigeria and its laws? Or how else will one explain the constant flagrant abuse of the laws of the land even when we have continued to write letters to the Ministry reminding it of relevant provisions of our laws that demand abiding by.

“According to Section 10 of the Appropriations Act 2022 (as Amended), Missions and Embassies have been empowered to constitute their Tender Board for the purpose of the procurements they need to make. We have called the attention of the Minister to this Act, but he has continued to direct the Missions not to obey this law in spite of receiving about four letters on the issue, including the latest one of 6 September 2022.

“In addition to the above, Section 7 of the Appropriations Act 2022 (As Amended), captures, inter alia, that “The Minister of Finance shall ensure that funds appropriated under this Act are released to the appropriate agencies and or organs of government as and when due, provided that no funds for any quarter of the fiscal year shall be deferred without prior waiver from the National Assembly”.

“In total disregard for the above, the Ministry has continued to direct Missions to retain and spend monies in their Capital accounts without any waivers from the National Assembly. A 23rd September 2022 letter by this Committee that was sent to the Ministry, as a reminder to earlier ones, still did not stop the Ministry from flouting the laws of the land.

“Being aware that administrative charges have been approved at the Missions by Mr President, this Committee, in line with Section 80 (3 and 4) CFRN (As Amended) has also observed that in total disregard to what the law says, the Minister has continued to authorise the spending of monies generated through administrative charges at the Missions without being appropriated by the National Assembly.

“In conclusion, it is important to note that this Committee has continued to draw the attention of the Ministry to the above noted infractions, but all to no avail. Consequent upon the degree of the above noted laxity, the Committee has resolved as follows:

“That it will not consider the present 2023 appropriation proposal of the Ministry until it does the following:

“Directs all Missions to abide by Section 10 of the 2022 Appropriations Act (as Amended);

“Furnish the National Assembly with the 2023 budget proposals in respect to targeted revenues from administrative charges at the missions and embassies;

Furnish the Committee with the list of unspent funds under the capital component of the Missions’ allocations for the necessary waivers of the National Assembly,” the Chairman stated.

In an attempt to wriggle out of the allegations, the minister said it was untrue that he was not obedient to the laws.

On the contrary, he claimed that he had issued directives to foreign Missions to act in accordance with the new law as well as directed all revenue generating agencies under the ministry to always forward their budget proposals for appropriation by parliament.

However, in a swift counter, the Committee Chairman expressed shock at the Minister’s claims, telling him evidentially, that as at the time of the meeting, the committee was inundated with reports that nothing had changed about the ministry’s alleged unlawful practices, which led the minister and his team to leave the committee looking very frustrated and disappointed.