Naija News

Stung by its own moral deficit arising from the conduct of some of its
leading lights, the House of Representatives seeks to recover lost
grounds with a tackle on President Goodluck Jonathan over his own
deficiencies in the execution of the budget.
LAST Thursday's threat to commence impeachment proceedings against
the President was the climax of the simmering discontent among the
law-makers over what they consider an insensitive presidency. The
threat of impeachment as spearheaded by the Minority Leader, Femi
Gbajabiamilla has inevitably set the stage for a dogfight between the
House and the Presidency.
The looming confrontation between the presidency and the House began
as a cold war. Indeed, the cat and mouse relationship between the
law-makers and the executive has lingered since the inception of the
7th session of the House inJune last year when Rep. Aminu
Tambuwalemerged as Speaker contrary to the arrangement approved by the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nevertheless, what has been seen all along as a low-intensity
political warfare suddenly escalated last Thursday when theHouse
decided to hold a plenary session onthe implementation of the 2012
budget. The day's plenary session seemed to have been pre-arranged as
it was well-attended by members. The debate was led by Hon. Sam Tsokwa
(PDP Taraba), Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business.
After he spoke, the Speaker called on the Chairman of the
Appropriation Committee of the House Hon. John Eno to brief the
law-makers on the details of the budget aswas passed by the House.
Revenue projections
Next to be called upon were the Chairmen of the Committees on Finance,
Customs, Petroleum Upstream and Gas. All of them were unanimous in
their verdict that the nation had not only met its revenue projections
for the period under review, but surpassed same in several cases.
However, the mood of the House became charged when Chairmen of
committees dubbed as "Spending Committees" were called upon to address
the House. After theChairmen of Committees on Works, Health and MDGs
had spoken, there was palpable anger in the Green Chamber.

One or two of the Committee Chairmen actually stoked the flames when
they alleged that civil servants had been directed by the Executive to
ignore the budget as was passed by the National Assembly and instead
implement the proposal as was presented by the various MDAs.
Few days before the debate on the budget,the House had discussed the
poor condition of the East-West Road passing through the Niger Delta.
The bad road was indirectly blamed for the petrol tanker accident that
claimed more than 150 lives penultimate week.
The House had urged the Federal Government to quickly complete the
road which is currently under construction to avoid further loss of
lives.
This notwithstanding, the stage was set in the House for the missile
that was fired at the executive later that Thursday with the
Presidency's reinstatement of Ms Arunma Oteh, as Director-General of
Securities Exchange Commission, SEC, – an action many of the
law-makers considered as an affront on the lower chamber.
The House Ad-hoc Committee on the Near Collapse of the Capital Market
had recommended the sack and prosecution ofOteh in its report which
was laid before theHouse the previous Tuesday. In addition to all
these, the House had in the last two months sent very strong signals
about the law-makers' displeasure with the conduct of government
business by the executive.
For instance at the end of its first legislative year last month, the
Committee on Rules and Business had condemned thePresident's tendency
to delay assent to bills passed by the National Assembly.
Over riding the president
Tsokwa, who chairs the Committee had told newsmen at a briefing that
the House would go ahead and over-ride the President in the following
legislative year if the situation persisted. The row over the twin
issues of delay in the President's assent to bills and
non-implementation of the 2012 budget actually became public last May
29, during Democracy Day celebration.
Speaker Tambuwal, had fired the first salvo when he said President
Jonathan's refusal to implement the budget in full and sign important
bills passed by the National Assembly were inimical to democracy in
the country. In response, Jonathan had argued that the budget as
passed by the National Assembly could not be executed by him. He
accused the legislators of padding the budget without recourse to
thefundamentals and benchmarks set for the budget.
Again, the President seemed to have incurred the law-makers wrath
since he seemed to have ignored their summons to appear before them
with the service chiefsto brief them about what the administration was
doing about the high level of insecurity in the northern part of the
country.
Terrorist attacks
The invitation was served on the President after terrorist attacks on
several churches in Kaduna State and the retaliatory attacks that
spurred further retaliation. In a seeming plot to get at Jonathan, the
Housedecided to raise germane questions on national security, drawing
inspiration from the Constitution, which confers it powers tosummon
any person in Nigeria to appear before it. Jonathan has remained
adamant to the House summons on the deteriorating insecurity in the
country.
Before now, not a few had considered the House of Reps probe of
N1.7trn fraud in the management of fuel subsidy, much of which
perpetrated in 2011, as a covert indictment of the administration.
President Jonathan has dilly-dallied on the implementation of findings
of the report, which required those indicted be prosecuted.
However, the $620,000 bribery that involved the chairman of the House
ad hocpanel that investigated the fuel scam, Mr. Farouk Lawan, further
fanned the embers of discord between the two arms of government.
The House had accused the presidency of masterminding the plot as a
way of distabilising the leadership. But the presidency swiftly denied
the charge. For now it remains uncertain how the rift between the
House and the Presidency would be resolved.