Buhari presents documents to National Assembly justifying spending $469m on jet fighters without approval

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has presented documents to the National Assembly to justify his recent decision to spend $469m on 12 Super Tucano fighter jets without approval saying he had no choice than top act quickly or the deal would have lapsed.

Last week, the National Assembly was up in arms after the presidency withdrew the money and spent it on the jets without getting approval from the Senate or House of Representatives. Some lawmakers even tabled a motion calling for the impeachment of the president because it was a breach of the constitution.

In response to the move, the presidency has presented documents and a letter from the US government to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters on the matter.  It said They revealed that the US government gave a February 20, deadline to effect the payment or wait for another two years to renegotiate.

Furthermore, the presidency also gave a list of precedents by past governments which embarked on similar purchases or expenditures due to exigencies. Investigations revealed that the presidency insisted that it acted in the national interest and that no cash was diverted or shared under the table.

It explained that there was no trace of scandal because it was purely a government to government transaction. One of the documents was a letter from the US government, which indicated a February 20 deadline to pay for the Super Tucano jets.

One presidency source said: “The payment of the $496m for the Super Tucano jets was not ill-motivated or scandalous as being painted. It was effected in the interest of the nation’s security and not an attempt to undermine the National Assembly in any form.

“If you go to Section 82 of the 1999 constitution, it says the president may authorise withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Revenue of the Federation for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the services of the government of the federation for a period not exceeding six months until the coming into operation of the Appropriation Act. There were also past precedents by some ex-presidents, including Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Mallam Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Dr Goodluck Jonathan.”

In addition, the source gave insights into such expenditures on exigencies by past presidents including $17.7bn withdrawn by Obasanjo from the excess crude account to pay the Paris Club and fund two projects without the National Assembly’s approval. Others include the Excess Crude Account (ECA) depleted by the Yar’Adua-Jonathan administration from $20bn in 2008 to less than $4 billion in 2010 without input by the National Assembly.

This included $5bn taken from ECA by the administration of President Yar’Adua for power generation and over $2bn withdrawn in 2014 by the Jonathan government for the purchase of equipment to fight Boko Haram. In all the instances, there is no evidence of consultation with the National Assembly.