Comments on the National Assembly over the 2013 amended budget by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has earned her a summon by the House of Representatives.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala is to appear before the lawmakers over her assertion that the economy will collapse in September if the National Assembly refuses to approve the 2013 Budget amendment bill President Goodluck Jonathan sent to it.
The decision of the House followed the adoption of the prayers of a motion by a member, Samson Osagie, under matters of national importance,
The House of Representatives recently rejected a bill by President Goodluck Jonathan amending the 2013 budget of N4.987 trillion passed by the National Assembly on the premise that Jonathan was not specific on areas of amendment.
But the President quickly sent another amendment highlighting areas of critical interest meant for amendment.
A newspaper yesterday quoted Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala as saying on a radio programme that the Federal Government may be handicapped in paying workers’ salaries should the budget amendment bill not be passed expeditiously.
She said: “We have been able to implement the budget to a state that we now discovered that there has to be some amendment. So, Mr President sent the amendments to the National Assembly. I think we can continue for a little while longer; we need the amendment to pass because come September or October we may not be able to pay salaries.
“One important part of the amendment is the salary that was moved out of that category to other subheads, which has to be restored. We need to restore N36billion for salary that was carried out so that the country will not shut down.”
Osagie said the minister was raising a false alarm to incite the public against the National Assembly.
“Assertion is intended not only to blackmail the National Assembly in the performance of its constitutional mandate, but also to incite Nigerian workers against a legitimate and most important institution of government – the National Assembly.”
He reminded the House that there is a subsisting and valid appropriation Act duly signed into law by the President, which is the operating budget for Nigeria for the financial year 2013.
He expressed worry “that the Minister of Finance had consistently insulted the sensibilities of the institution of the National Assembly through her constant umbrage and blackmail of this institution”.
Osagie said rather than diverting the attention of the public from its failings, the executive must implement the budget passed into law and not stop.
Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha, who presided at the session, mandated the committees on Finance , Appropriation and Legislative Compliance to invite the minister and investigate if she really made such comments.
The joint committee is to report back to the House within a week.
Source: The Nation
UPDATE: I was misquoted - Okonjo-Iweala
The Finance Minister reiterated the need to resolve the budget impasse.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday denied statements credited to her on the 2013 budget crisis, saying she has no intention to pitch the National Assembly against either President Goodluck Jonathan or the executive arm of government.
The embattled minister drew the anger of the two Chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday following reports that she had warned, while appearing on an Abuja-based radio programme on Monday, that the country would shutdown if the impasse on the 2013 budget was not resolved.
Ms. Okonjo-Iweala, however, told State House correspondents on Wednesday in Abuja that at no time during the radio programme did she say that the government or country was going to shutdown if the contentious issues in the budget were not resolved.
She said she drew attention to the challenges the country’s economy was facing and pointed out that these are short term problems that are being addressed; insisting that that does not in any way imply that the economy or the country was going to shutdown.
“At no point in time did I say that the government or the country is going to shut down,” the minister said. “The economy is strong; we are robust; we have our short-term challenges. As you know, we are dealing with reduced revenue due to the issue of oil theft, which Mr. President is focusing on and is solving.”
The government, she said, has already constituted a committee of governors, with the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, as Chairman, to try and deal with the issue of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, pointing out that government is confident that the problem would soon be resolved, to bring down the incidence of pipeline vandalism in the region.
“What I did say was that we will not be able to pay salaries, and that is a very different situation we are talking about. So this was a misleading headline from a newspaper and we should not spend the time of national debate on non-issues. At no time did I say the country is going to shutdown. I said we will not be able to pay salaries and that remains the fact; that is factual,” she said.
On the allegation by Senators that she was trying to pitch them against President Goodluck Jonathan, Ms. Okonjo-Iweala said the executive has a good working relationship with the legislative arm of government, adding that the two arms of government would at all times work in a collegial manner to ensure that problems over the 2013 budget are resolved.
“It is absolutely untrue; we are not pitching anyone against anyone. We have been working with Senators and House of Reps members in a very collegial manner. We are working with them. This headline was put out mischievously. That was not the headline,” she said.
During the controversial interview the minister had said: “The country has been running from January up until now, and we have been implementing the budget that was passed. But, we have got to a point where some amendments have to be made, and this is why Mr. President sent this amendment to the National Assembly.
“We can continue for a little while longer, but at some point, we need the amendment to pass, because come September/October we may not be able to pay salaries, because we would need to restore about N32 billion for salaries that were moved around.
The Senate and the House of Representatives, which considered the statement as calculated to blackmail the lawmakers and incite Nigerians against them, showed their anger by warning the minister to desist from statements capable of putting the legislature and executive on a collision course.
Source: Premium Times
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