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The House of Representatives seemed to
have called the bluff of the Independent National Electoral
Commission’s deadline on the new voters’ register, declining to pass
the N89bn budget earlier approved for the exercise by the senate.

The INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, had
said during a previous meeting with the lawmakers, that the pressure of
time for the exercise makes it crucial that funds be made available
within two weeks elapsing yesterday August 11, 2010. A failure would
result in the impossibility of conducting the vital exercise ahead of
the 2011 elections which, on its own, may also face the consequences of
such failing, he warned. But the House stood down the appropriation
bill on Wednesday after it had gone through the second reading,

heightening a frustration the
legislature supposedly faces between the challenges of proper
appropriation and timely delivery of the bill.

Members of the House, like the
senators, spoke of a budget they said is questionable which is however
difficult to be scrutinized chiefly for not wanting to be seen as
delaying the time-frame of the electoral exercise. “It would be wrong
to just approve the proposal hook, line and sinker,” said Abdul Ningi,
the former House Majority Leader. “Clearly some items on this proposal
were already taken care in the 2010 Appropriation Act adding and it
would be wrong to pretend that all was well it just because the time
left is very short.”

Wait for a day

The House minority leader, Mohammed
Ndume, said the proposal by the electoral commission to purchase
150,000 Transparent Collapsible Boxes at N3billion, is too high and
must be reviewed. A former speaker protempore, Terngu Tsegba, in as
much as the voters’ register is the “bedrock of credible elections”,
the House of Representatives in considering the money Bill, must be
meticulous. He said the lawmakers should guard against the estimates,
possibly having mix-ups that may put the economy in jeopardy. “How can
you use the money that was sourced locally to purchase election
equipments abroad,” he argued.

But the arguments, though acknowledged
by other members, need not overshadow the approval which the house in
the first place reconvened for. “Since Independence, this is the first
time a president would appoint an electoral umpire with character and
if you give a man of character a job to do, you must give him the tools
to do it. I want the parliament to be motivated by sense of duty to do
what is right,” said Patrick Obahiagbon, a member from Edo state.

The choice of what is right appeared split between those asking for
a thorough vetting, those supporting an unquestioned passage and the
legislators urging for the both-scrutiny and timely delivery of the
budget. After the debate, the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, announced the
document presented with the same figures passed by the senate, will be
considered Thursday and assured of its passage. The bill will now be
considered by the House Committees on Finance and Appropriation.