N’ Assembly, Presidency showdown looms

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), House, Legislature, Presidency, Senate Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Showdown looms between the National Assembly and the Presidency over non-implementation of its resolutions since 1999. As the House of Representatives settles down to discuss the report of its ad-hoc committee which investigated the fuel subsidy regime last Tuesday, indications emerged at the weekend that the Presidency believed that the incessant probes of federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were specifically targeted at it.

As such, the Presidency may have also resolved to treat recommendations emanating from the National Assembly, particularly as it concerns its members as purely ‘advisory’. Daily Sun gathered that the Presidency was particularly miffed at the Senate’s resolution calling for the immediate removal of Ms. Bola Onagoruwa as the director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Senate’s resolution was reportedly predicated on Onagoruwa’s selling of five per cent of the Federal Government’s shares in Eleme Petro-Chemicals, contrary to a standing rule that a investor could not hold more than 75 per cent shares.
In the latest resolution coming from the National Assembly, several oil marketers and firms were fingered as benefiting from the subsidy scheme without actually importing any petroleum product.
Besides, the Lawan report also noted that in a reform of the petroleum sector, two ministers should be appointed to head the petroleum resources ministry.

Daily Sun reliably gathered that the recommendations had not been favorable received at the Presidency, which viewed the “incessant investigations of MDAs by the National Assembly as a subtle assessment and evaluation of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.“Why are the lawmakers embarking on the rash of probes and churning out resolutions they know are not backed by any force of law? Check your constitution; it is not stated anywhere that the executive is compelled to carry out resolutions emanating from the National Assembly.”

Perhaps in a bid to address that anomaly, a senator told Daily Sun yesterday that some members in the Constitution Review Committee (CRC) had mulled the idea of amending the 1999 Constitution so that “henceforth, the executive would no longer treat our resolutions as merely advisory. Meanwhile, a source on the Senate Joint Committee on Appropriation, Finance and Petroleum Resources (Downstream), investigating the fuel subsidy regime of the Federal Government, said the report would soon be ready.

“Nigerians should expect a shocker whenever we present the report in the chamber. Our report would be radically different from that of the House,” the source said. Chairman of the Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe chaired the joint committee, which commenced the probe in November 2011.

-Sunwp_posts