Buhari’s 2018 Budget Unconstitutional – Group

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 By;  MATTHEW  UKACHUNWA ,  Lagos
The 2018 Appropriation Bill is unconstitutional, because President Muhammad Buhari did not recognize the independence of the judiciary to present its own budget, Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS) has proclaimed.
HURILAWS therefore threatened to initiate a law suit to set aside the 2018 budget if within seven days the judicial arm of government is not separated from it.
According to HURILAWS, the constitution requests each arm of government (the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary)to lay before the National Assembly its estimates of revenue and expenditure for each financial year after which it is appropriated, harmonized as a bill and presented to the President for his assent.
HURILAWS communicated this claim in a letter it wrote to Senate President Bukola Srarki and Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogarra.
The letter  which bore the subject heading:  “Is The 2018 Appropriation Bill Constitutional?” was written on 3rd January, 2018 and was signed by Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN),  senior counsel in HURILAWS.
The law body justified its claim by drawing the attention of the chief lawmakers as addressees to the provisions of the Constitution and the judgement of a Federal High Court on the matter.
“Sections 81 to 84 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) set out the procedure for preparing the Appropriation Bills,” HURILAWS pointed out.
It regretted the failure of the President to abide by the letters and the spirit of the law in that regard.  “Unfortunately,” HURILAWS declared, “the Executive has failed to comply with this procedure by laying before the National Assembly estimates of revenues and expenditure for the Judiciary. This is in spite of a subsisting Federal High Court decision in Olisa Agbakoba vs Attorney-General of the Federation and others suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/63/2013 that has declared this practice unconstitutional.”
The organization said to the legislators:  “Please note that if after seven days the constitutional procedure is not complied with, we shall have no choice but to initiate legal proceedings to enforce the decision of the Federal High Court and set aside the 2018 Appropriation Bill.”

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