Posted by By JAMES OJO and OGIDAN SAMUEL, Abuja on
Seeming lacklustre attitude of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to the implementation of the 2008 Budget sparked off a rowdy session that lasted for more than 30 minutes in the House of Representatives yesterday, as members shouted in their top voices to heap blames on the executive.
Seeming lacklustre attitude of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to the implementation of the 2008 Budget sparked off a rowdy session that lasted for more than 30 minutes in the House of Representatives yesterday, as members shouted in their top voices to heap blames on the executive.
Before the shouting match, watched helplessly by the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, Minority Leader, Ali Ndume, had described the action of the president as impeachable, because it ran foul of the 1999 Constitution.
The stage to fire arrows of condemnation to the executive was set by the Chairman of Finance Committee, Hon John Enoh, who raised an issue of urgent national importance, under Order 8, rule 4, 1 and 3 of the House.
He complained about what was happening to the budget passed by the National Assembly, calling the attention of the members to the way the Yar'Adua-led executive was executing it, 'the way they want and not as we passed it."
Specifically, Enoh told his colleagues that there was mischief in the way the budget was being implemented, adding that the people of Nigeria would be the worse at the end of the fiscal year.
Only recently, the Ministry of Finance sent out a circular on the implementation of capital projects, which was contrary to the guidelines for implementation.
'The earlier, this House rises up to stop this unconstitutional act because this is the first budget by this House that will determine the subsequent ones, the better," he cautioned.
He told the House that the committee, through the office of the Clerk had written the minister of Finance four times to appear and defend the N160 billion approved for some capital projects even before the budget was signed into law, but he declined.
'He (Minister) always claimed to be either attending meeting with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), or not in the country," Enoh alleged.
The submission of the Finance Committee chairman drew the ire of members, particularly the opposition group.
Opposition Leader, Ali Ndume, in an angry voice said that it was unfortunate that a minister who never contested an election would want to undermine the views of elected politicians.
'No minister can tour every local governments and constituencies to know what the people need. What knowledge does he have? If this House is not respected, it means that an impeachable offence had been committed," he posited.
Ndume viewed the refusal of the executive to send a supplementary budget as taking the matter personal, adding: 'When we invited members of the executive, we raised a complaint that we had no input in the budget and that we needed to include some projects in the budget that would directly affect the people we represent, up till now we are yet to see the supplementary budget.
'We explained to them that additions, subtractions or whatever were not personal, but reflected the needs of our people. We told Mr. President that this budget was not a personal thing, but the Presidency is taking is as a personal thing. We included some of these things (projects), because we feel that if we did not include them, our people would ask us that: what did you do for us."
The anger of the members was fuelled by the submissions of Hon Bala Ibn Na'Allah from Kebbi State and Hon Terngu Tsegba from Benue State. Tsegba, former speaker protempore, criticized the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamussuden Usman, describing him as an agent provocateur. While calling on the House to discontinue discussing with the Presidency on the budget, as according to him, the Ministry of Finance may not have been acting with the discretion of President Yar'Adua, he noted that under the military regime, no minister could afford to do what he is doing.
Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Hon Bala Ibn Na'Allah, warned that if the trend of heads of ministries or public servants disrespecting the legislature continued, the experiment with democracy should be considered a failure.
The speaker, thereafter, called on Enoh to move his prayers for adoption; it was his suggestions that the House should prevail on the president to implement the budget that threw the chamber into disarray. The shout of No! No! No! was followed by members leaving their seats to lobby for support in preparation to move the motion for impeachment. Unable to return members to their seat for sanity to prevail, the speaker, after consulting with the clerk and some of his loyalists, beckoned to the Leader of the House, Hon Tunde Akogun to move a motion clearing the gallery for an executive session to hold.
Retuning to plenary after about two hours of closed-door meeting, Enoh was asked to move his prayers, which was seconded by Hon Austin Nwachukwu from Imo State.
House, therefore, directed President Yar'Adua, to as a matter of urgency, begin the implementation of the 2008 budget faithfully as signed into law.
It also summoned the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, to appear before the Committees on Appropriation, Finance, National Planning, Due Process and Justice, over an alleged circular he issued to ministries, department and agencies of government, warning against the implementation of the 2008 Appropriation Act signed by the president on Tuesday May 28 by 2pm.