Speaker Dogara Boasts, "No One Can Prosecute Me"

National Assembly members cannot be investigated or charged to court for performing their constitutional responsibility of lawmaking, including budget, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has declared.

Dogara stated this at the Civil Society Dialogue Session on One Year of the Legislative Agenda organised by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) in Abuja on Thursday.

The speaker said the 2016 budget had been controversial from the beginning and that it took dialogue, compromise and consensus to produce a workable document.

He said that by virtue of provisions of the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act, no member of parliament could be charged to court or investigated for exercising their powers of lawmaking.

On the powers of the National Assembly over budget, Dogara maintained that the Appropriation Bill was just like any other bill which must be subjected to normal legislative processes and scrutiny.

The Speaker maintained that by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, only the National Assembly had powers to scrutinise the revenue and expenditure estimates submitted by Mr President.

“What I am saying is further reinforced by Section 80 (4) of the constitution which says that no money shall be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue fund or any other fund of the federation except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.

“I want this thing to sink so that we can understand it from here and perhaps it may change the ongoing discourse.

“If you say the National Assembly doesn’t have the powers to tinker with the budget, that we just pass it; when it is prepared and laid, we turn it into a bill. If it is a bill, how do other bills make progression in the parliament in order to become law?

“If you contend that we cannot tinker with the appropriation bill, even though it is a money bill, it, therefore, goes without saying that we cannot tinker with any executive bill’’, he said.

According to him, if they (Executive) bring a bill, they will not consult the public to say come and give us your input on this bill.

Dogara stressed the need for more sensitisation of the public on the role of legislature in the appropriation process, saying the misconception of the role led to attempts to discredit the 2016 budget.