Reps fault Okonjo-Iweala on budget implementation

Posted by admin House, Legislature Monday, July 30th, 2012

THE House of Representatives has dismissed as untrue statements credited to Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the effect that the slow pace of the 2012 budget implementation was caused by the National Assembly constituency projects.

Meanwhile, a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Uwemedimo Nwoko, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan has not committed offences that could earn him impeachment, decrying the threat by the House of Representatives to remove him from office.

He spoke as a civil society group, Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) condemned what it called the attack by some politicians from the South West Zone of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the person of the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila.

Addressing a press conference yesterday evening at the National Assembly, House of Representatives spokesman, Zakari Mohammed, wondered how the constituency projects which he said constituted only ten per cent of the entire budget could become an obstacle for national budget implementation.

Mohammed said:

“For the avoidance of doubt, constituency projects represent less than 10% of the 2012 capital budget. How can this be the reason for the slow implementation of the budget? This excuse for non-implementation falls flat on its face when a review of the performance of the executive on even its own preferred projects is made. More evidential is the fact that releases so far made to the MDAs are not enough to pay for on–going projects or projects chosen by the executive.

“For instance, out of a total appropriation of N145 billion for the Ministry of Works in the budget, only N47 billion has so far been released to the ministry. In the first quarter, N38 billion was released and in the second quarter only N9 billion was released, with a shortfall of about N30 billion for the second quarter. The projects that need these appropriations are core road projects scattered all over the country. Or are these inter-state highways and other strategic road projects also constituency projects? Playing to the gallery by the executive arm will not change the facts of the situation.”

Nwoko who spoke to The Guardian in Uyo explained that the implementation of 2012 budget which has been the issue between President Jonathan and the House of Representatives has statistics that shows that there is 56 percent implementation of the budget and that the year is just half way through. According to him, the House of Representatives wants to play to the gallery to win the applause of the uneducated part of the society through such threat.

His words: “An impeachable offence is defined by the constitution as any offence or act which the National Assembly considers to be impeachable. To that extent, the National Assembly in its own judgment, which in any event must be objective and reasonable, has the total definition of what it would consider to be an impeachable offence. In the instant case of House of Representatives and President Jonathan, the issue is simply narrowed down to the execution of the 2012 Appropriation Act . The question is what is the level or degree of the breach which the House of Representatives is complaining . Statistics released by the executive last week through the supervising minister for the economy show that there is 56 percent implementation of the budget and the year is just half way through .To my mind, that does not in any way call for threat of impeachment, except the House wants to play to the gallery to win the applause of the uneducated part of the society. It is on record that the Senate which is the Upper Chamber conducted itself with more mature temperament and has remained focus on its legislative business without any impeachment threat on the president, but the Lower Chamber has continually conducted its affairs in a manner that regularly tends to overheat the polity and also throw its members on the wrong side of history.”

According to Nwoko, there is nothing wrong with the lawmakers calling the attention of the president to observed inadequacies in the running of the executive arm of government, the actions of which are complementary to those of the legislators, but there is everything wrong with members of the House of Representatives trying to trivialise serious issues of governance and constitution with likely phenomena consequences like impeachment.

“The issue of insecurity in the country which has been one of the serious challenges faced by the present administration is a collective responsibility. A successful fight of Boko Haram will require a counter study of their operational strategies, human connections, logistics supply route and relationship with terrorist organizations based outside the country and the continent. Tackling Boko Haram in the country will take a great deal of planning and intelligence gathering,” he said.

Gbajabiamila of the Action Congress of Nigeria {ACN} who represents Surulere Federal Constituency of Lagos State at the House of Representatives has come under what was called persistent sponsored attacks by a section of the PDP leadership following his motion recently in the Lower Chamber which warned President Jonathan of possible impeachment by September 2012 should the 2012 budget fail to be implemented to appreciable percentage.

The South West PDP has reportedly demanded the resignation of Gbajabiamila following alleged professional indictment slammed on him but later lifted while he was practicing law in the United States of America following alleged misconduct.

In a statement, HURIWA said the timing of the publication of the so-called indictment of Gbajabiamila by some sympathizers of the Presidency amounted to “political blackmail” and an attempt to intimidate members of the political opposition from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression and speech.

-via Guardianwp_posts