2014 budget: Why Reps are angry with Jonathan

Major reasons why majority of lawmakers in the National of Assembly rejected the request by President Goodluck Jonathan to appear before them and present the 2014 budget, emerged last night.

A ranking official of the NASS told Saturday Vanguard that the lawmakers were upset with the President for allowing ministers to get away with the poor implementation of the 2013

budget, thereby exposing Nigerians to more suffering and hardship.

The officer pointed out that most of the lawmakers wanted to prevent the President from presenting the 2014 budget until he gives account of the current estimate, which they claimed had been poorly implemented by the Executive.

The lawmaker, who is from the same People’s Democratic Party as President Jonathan, pointed out that majority of the federal legislators were disappointed that despite the intense pressure from them, only 40 percent of the 2013 budget was  implemented.

The source said that the lawmakers did not feel it was necessary for the president to present the 2014 budget when the one of  2013 has not been satisfactorily implemented to give some hope and succour to Nigerians.

”I can tell you that what you saw on the floor of the House on Thursday was a true reflection of the feelings of the majority of lawmakers who feel that the President had allowed his core ministers to get away with the poor implementation of the current budget, thereby adding to the hardship being experienced by majority of the citizens.

”That is why majority of us voted against the appearance of the president to present another budget when there are unresolved issues with the current budget, which has not significantly addressed the socio-economic plight of Nigerians.

”Our members wanted to prove a point to the Executive that budgets should no longer be seen as a mere ritual but as a serious law of the land that must be implemented to the full for the advancement of the welfare of the majority of the citizens of Nigeria and not for buying luxury for a few privileged persons working with the president”.

Asked why the lawmakers changed their minds and accepted the appearance of the presentation of the budget next week, the lawmaker said that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, had to shut down those who opposed the move to stop the president and allow the minority to have their way.

He said, “Mr. Speaker saw the mood of the majority lawmakers and had to veto the action of the majority just to save the President from being humiliated.

”What the Speaker did in the circumstance was to veto the majority who opposed the President’s coming and approve the views of the minority, who approved of his coming. In other words, the Speaker vetoed the majority with his gavel just to save the president from humiliation.

The source stated that the budget might not be deliberated upon after the presentation by the president until a substantial progress had been made on the current budget by the Executive.

He said it was unbecoming of the Finance Minister to select which project to fund or not after the NASS had passed the budget into law and assented by Mr. President.

Most of the projects approved for implementation in the current budget are yet to be cash-backed by the Finance   Ministry.

For instance, only the sum of N76.3 billion out of the N141 billion approved for road construction by the Federal Ministry of Works, has so far been released.

As a result, contractors, working for the Ministry are being owed over N30 billion.