Jonathan's visit Divides house...

With less than a week left for President Goodluck
Jonathan to present the 2014 budget proposal to a joint
session of the parliament, a mild drama ensued at the
chamber of the House of Representatives as some
members were bent on denying the president’s request.
LEADERSHIP recalls that Jonathan had, in a letter read
on the floor of the House last week, requested the
lawmakers to allow him to present the budget proposal
on Tuesday, November 12.
The rules of the House states that lawmakers need to
suspend their relevant rules in order to allow a non-
lawmaker access into the chamber for an address. To
proceed on that order, Speaker Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal called on Deputy House Leader Leo Ogor to
move the motion for the suspension of House rules.
But the House was immediately divided on the motion
as some members raised objections and threatened to
put the process on hold.
Hon Aliyu Sani Madaki (PDP, Kano) who led the assault
came under matters of personal explanation and told
the House that due to the poor implementation of the
2013 budget, the lawmakers ought to postpone
Jonathan’s budget presentation in order to ascertain
why.
Tambuwal, however, prevailed on them to rest the
matter, saying there would not be a repeat.
He added that with what the House committees saw
during their oversights of ministries, departments and
agencies, the 2013 budget performance is below 40
percent.
He said the House could not accept any budget as it is
yet to consider the Medium Term Expenditure
Framework (MTEF) by Jonathan.
Lending his voice to Madaki’s argument, Hon. Ben
Nwankwo (APGA, Anambra) said the House had the
constitutional powers to ascertain budget performance,
saying all they needed to do was to postpone
Jonathan’s presentation.
Also, Hon. Friday Itulah (PDP, Edo) said most
lawmakers were not satisfied that with less than seven
weeks for the year to run out, budget implementation
has been very poor so far.
However, Hon Warman Ogoribo (PDP, Bayelsa) and Hon
Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi) argued that no motion or
opinion should make the lawmakers stop Jonathan’s
presentation on Tuesday, saying some committees’
oversights reports were yet to be completed.
This turned the House chamber into a rowdy session
for a while as members openly booed their two
colleagues.