The speaker house of representatives has criticised President Goodluck Jonathan over his refusal to implement resolutions of the National Assembly. Speaking during the 2013 budget presentation yesterday at a joint session of the National Assembly, Tambuwal said the legislature would like the President to succeed and that they do not have any other motive apart from that. “Mr. President, let me restate our assurances that the National Assembly wants you to succeed and I say that for every legislator here today. The stakes are certainly high and as representatives of the people we know exactly how bad things are. I am compelled however to state that the National Assembly is becoming increasingly concerned about the disregard for its resolutions and public comments by certain functionaries of the Executive on same. I cite the Senate Resolution on the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the House Resolution on the state of insecurity of the nation, requesting Mr. President to visit and brief the House, the House of Representatives Resolution on the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the concurrent Resolution of the two Chambers on Bakassi, among others. “This does not promote cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature and consequently stability in the polity,” Tambuwal lamented. On 28th May, Jonathan and Tambuwal disagreed publicly during the democracy day anniversary lecture at the Presidential Villa, Abuja over Jonathan’s failure to assent to bills passed by the The Speaker, who intermittently received standing ovation from his colleagues in the green chamber yesterday, informed the President that as representatives of the Nigerian people, the National Assembly “have closer interaction with nooks and crannies of the nation we are privileged to feel the people’s pulse more intensely and we are duty bound to communicate same to you”. He said interim reports on field oversight of the 2012 budget by the House standing committees “are clearly unimpressive both in terms of releases as well as utilisation” in breach of section 8 of the budget bill. Tambuwal also called on the President to constitute the Public Procurement Council as provided for under the Public Procurement Act 2007 saying, “The sanctity of extant legislation and respect for the rule of law are the hallmarks of true democracy.” The Speaker further queried the non-inclusion of revenues from gas which runs into billions of dollars and the external borrowing plan in the budget estimates and the Medium Term Expenditure Frame Work.

House to house check in zaria city.... Islamic groups raises concern

Men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) early morning yesterday stormed Kwarbai area near the palace of Emir of Zazzau in Zaria city and arrested nine people including a 20-year-old girl. Investigation by Daily Trust revealed that from Monday to yesterday, the JTF had carried out a number of arrests and also engaged in house to house search. Yesterday’s operation at a house very close to the Zazzau’s palace and the residence of Wazirin Zazzau, Alhaji Ibrahim Aminu, caused serious panic in the city. When contacted, the Kaduna State Police Command’s public relations officer, DSP Aminu Lawal, said there was an ongoing operation in the ancient city to fish out all criminal elements. “I am sure you are aware of the security challenges facing Zaria and its environs. The operations are targeted at sanitizing the city to rid it of all criminal elements. In raids like these, arrests would be made but all those that have no case to answer would be released after investigation,” DSP Lawal said. However, residents of the city interviewed yesterday said the JTF’s operations are taking unpleasant dimension. “This morning they arrested nine people at their residence, which is very close to the emir’s palace. Among them is a staff of the Health Unit of the Zaria local government, students and even a 20-year-old girl. Similarly, they carried out such type of operation at Samaru and Hayin Ojo in Sabon Gari local government. “On Monday, they conducted a house to house search at Fan Wanki quarters at Kofar Kibo in Zaria city. All these, to our understanding, are attempts to deprive the city of the peace it is enjoying. Even the blasts that occurred recently, those who witnessed them confirmed that the security personnel planted them,” resident Sani Bello said.

NAtional assembly fires back at the presidency

Senate President David Mark and Speaker Aminu Tambuwal came under fire from the Presidency yesterday over their comments on Wednesday in which they criticised President Jonathan for poor budget implementation. Presidential assistant Doyin Okupe said the National Assembly leaders were merely grandstanding and were deliberately trying to discredit the Jonathan administration. At the budget event on Wednesday, Mark told the President not to expect the lawmakers to “robotically pass budget estimates as presented,” while Tambuwal said the 2012 budget implementation had not been impressive. But at a news conference in Abuja yesterday, Okupe, who is Jonathan’s senior special assistant on public affairs, said Mark and Tambuwal’s statements were unnecessary. “What was clearly a masterly presentation of a commendable development agenda…was nearly marred by some unnecessary scathing remarks by the leadership of the National Assembly,” Okupe said. “Let me state emphatically that the president and his administration do not expect and has never ever conceived the idea that in a healthy democracy, the National Assembly would just rubber stamp whatever is presented. “It is quite clear that this is not a high handed administration and is not dogmatic in any way. In a healthy democracy there is exchange of ideas and deliberations over various national issues until reasonable agreements are made.” Okupe also criticised Mark for saying that the budget figures were “mere estimates”. “The budget represents the mission, intention and the definitive steps that the government intends to take over the next twelve months and we felt that referring to it as mere estimates demeans the quality of the document itself,” Okupe said. In his statement on Wednesday, Tambuwal had said reports from House of Representatives committees that monitored 2012 budget implementation showed that the execution level and the funds releases were poor. “This statement cannot be wholesomely acceptable if you look at the background and how they hurriedly packaged the oversight visit. In one week, the assembly had gone round the whole country and quickly completed oversight function and come to that conclusion,” Okupe said. He added that the claim of poor budget execution was a deliberate attempt by the National Assembly to discredit the Jonathan administration, arguing that the late passage of the budget should have been considered. “This budget became law at the end of 2012 so it has just been implemented for the past five months only. A budget is expected to last for 12 months but because of the late passage, it was only implemented for five months,” he said. Okupe said it was “dictatorial and authoritarian” for the House of Representatives to have raised the oil price benchmark proposed by the President in the budget from $75 to $80 per barrel. He said in the interest of the Nigerian people, the National Assembly and the executive must find a common ground rather than resorting to what he called grandstanding. Mark to Okupe: Know your limits Late last night, Mark and Tambuwal responded to what they called Okupe’s disrespectful remarks against the National Assembly and its leaders. A statement by Mark’s spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan said, “It is instructive to first state that Senator Mark and Mr. President are on the same page in the onerous task of ensuring the actualisation of the transformation agenda of this administration. “There was nothing derisive in the welcome address of the president of the senate at the budget presentation. We challenge Dr. Okukpe to revisit the speech and discover his misadventure. “It is therefore strange that Dr. Okupe would meddlesomely attempt to create unnecessary disaffection between the legislature and the executive. “It is common knowledge that budgets are estimates of revenues and expenditures of the Federation for the next financial year. Section 81 of the1999 Constitution (as amended) is very explicit. The position of the Senate which was expressed by the President of the Senate is that in line with constitutional provisions, the legislature has a right of appropriation. “Dr. Okupe as a public affairs manager has a responsibility to make friends and create a harmonious working relationship between the executive and other arms of government. His job is not to make enemies and create unfavorable atmosphere for Mr. President. Tambuwal: Okupe is ignorant In a statement by his spokesman Imam Imam, Tambuwal said the “remarks of the two leaders where in conformity with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and that all statements by the two leaders were backed by facts and figures from field studies by the legislators and expert advises. “It is apparent that Okupe is dabbling into areas where he is totally ignorant about. The uncouth manner in which he replied elected representatives showed his apparent lack of respect to the legislature as an institution. The entire remarks he made gave him out as an overzealous official doing a hatchet job in order to be relevant in the scheme of things. “The Speaker and the House of Representatives will always stand by the tenets of good governance and true representation at all times.”