…President may present 2014 budget Thursday
BEVERLY HILLS, CA, December 17, (THEWILL) – The Senate on Tuesday declared as ‘utter rubbish’ recent call on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings on President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged gross misconduct by the opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC).
APC, it could be recalled, had, in a statement on Sunday by its interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, urged the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Jonathan.
The party premised its call on allegation of gross misconduct as contained in the 18-page letter to the President by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
The letter also accused Jonathan of incompetence and misconduct arising from perceived tolerance of corruption, training of killer snipers and other acts capable of crashing the country completely.
But the Senate after a closed door session on Tuesday took a swipe at the call, which the government had described as treason, saying the call was a complete rubbish not deserving any further comment.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe, told journalists at a media briefing that “The Senate direction to this call is that it is utter rubbish deserving no any other comment.”
Abaribe said the Senate and the House of Representatives have broken the deadlock over oil benchmark for the 2014 budget, thus signalling the possibility of the President presenting the budget this week, though the Senate plans to adjourn for Christmas break on Thursday.
”The conference committee on MTEF/FSP that had adjourned sine die, last week, because of differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives with regard to the benchmark, will reconvene at 3pm today(Tuesday) and hopefully, we will resolve the matter.
“Of course, resolution of the matter also means the country will be in a position to receive the budget from Mr President. This is what I can confirm.
“The Senate has the Rule 1(b) which is part of our rules which says we have options at all times to regulate our procedure. So, depending on the ground, the Senate, if it will need to sit on a Sunday, will also do so,” he said.
Nonetheless, sources revealed that President Jonathan may present the 2014 budget to the joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday or at best delegate the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy , Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to stand in for him.
It was also learnt that the two chambers may have decided to fix the oil benchmark for the 2014 medium Term Expenditure Framework at $77.5 per barrel.
The Conference Committee of the two chambers had, on three occasions , disagreed on the oil benchmark. While the executive had fixed it at $74 per barrel, the Senate pegged it at $76.5 while the House of Representatives insisted that the benchmark should be $79 per barrel.
The disagreement had stalled the presentation of the budget by President Jonathan on November 19 as he advised the two chambers to harmonise their positions so as to have a common benchmark.
However attempts by the two chambers to come into terms was deadlocked on three occasions even when the Senate decided to shift from its initial position of $76.5 to $77, yet the House of Representatives maintained its position of $79 and even walked out on the Senate.
It was gathered that after adjourning sine die, the leaderships of the two members had to intervene and had a closed door meeting where it was agreed that the benchmark should be fixed at $77.5 per barrel.
On emergency rule, the Senate also in the closed door session on Tuesday was said to have discussed issues bordering on security, especially the extension of the emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States and decided to invite the Security Chiefs to brief the Senate on the security situation in the states involved.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega at the stakeholders hearing in Abuja, Monday had raised the alarm that if the security situation in the North East zone, especially the states under emergency rule did not change, there would be no elections in the affected states in 2015.
Senator Abaribe therefore informed journalists that the Senate will on Wednesday have in audience the Service Chiefs, Inspector –General of Police and Heads of other Security outfits on security situation in the country and in particular, the effect of the emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.
“I can also confirm that we will also host tomorrow (Wednesday), in a close session, the leadership of the country’s armed forces for an interaction with the Senate with regard to the security situation the country is facing,” he said.
BY EMMA UCHE, ABUJA
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