N’Assembly debates 2014 budget next week
- Written by From Bridget Chiedu Onochie and Terbemba Daka (Abuja)
• Senate refers screening of Service Chiefs to committees
• Decries alleged mismanagement of AMCON Fund
• Reps probe resettlement of persons displaced from Bakassi
TO allow for quick passage of 2014 Appropriation Bill, the two Chambers of the National Assembly will next week begin debates on the budget.
Meanwhile, screening of Service Chiefs by the Senate has been referred to committees on Defence, Army, Navy and Air Force. They were mandated to expedite legislative actions on it and submit report within one week.
In a related development, a bill seeking to amend Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) Act, yesterday scaled second reading on the floor of the Senate, but senators decried the alleged ineffective use of N5.6 trillion pumped into the Corporation by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In the same vein, the House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Special Duties to investigate the controversial issue of omission of persons in the resettlement of displaced people of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula.
The committee is to submit its findings to the Parliament within four weeks.
Senate President, David Mark, who announced this yesterday shortly before commencement of the day’s plenary, following a letter to that effect from the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, (Cross River Central), said debate on the N4.6 trillion proposal will take place between Tuesday and Thursday next week.
Mark therefore urged his colleagues to prepare for an exhaustive debate that would lead to its quick passage. Consequently, a register has been opened to take names of senators that will be willing to contribute during the three-day debate.
Debate on 2014 appropriation was expected to top agenda as senators resumed from their Christmas and New Year break. It was not explained why the issue failed to come up in their first week of resumption.
President Goodluck Jonathan, had, through the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, presented a budget estimate of N4.6 trillion to the National Assembly for the 2014 fiscal year.
Also, the Senate referred consideration of the request of President Goodluck Jonathan for confirmation of Col. Umaru Faruk Ahmed (rtd), a nominee from Katsina State, for appointment as a member of the governing board of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, to its Committee on Works with a mandate to submit report in seven days time.
Efforts by Senator Kabiru Gaya (Kano Central) to reject the appointments of the Service Chiefs were unsuccessful.
Gaya, who raised a Point of Order 53 of the Senate Standing Rule, had argued that President Jonathan violated the law by appointing and giving portfolios to the Service Chiefs before submitting their names for confirmation.
He argued that the President ought to have nominated and submitted their names to the Senate for approval before appointing and assigning offices to them. He also demanded to know what happens to them in a situation where they fail the screening.
Mark, however, ruled him out of order on the ground that assigning portfolios to them does not automatically confirm them. He added that that was the reason military bosses have not been decorated formally to suit their new offices.
Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, at a press conference yesterday disclosed that members of the Parliament only received copies of the budget Bill yesterday (Thursday) and would use the weekend to thoroughly study the details.
“Members have gotten copies of the proposed budget and they will use this weekend to study the document. We hope that it will go through second reading and be committed to the committee by Tuesday next week.
We will look at it deeply so that at the end of the day, we will get a working budget. We will ask questions where necessary”, he stated.
The House spokesman also dismissed suggestions in some quarters that the National Assembly was responsible for the delay in the presentation of the 2014 appropriation bill and blamed it on the failure of the Executive to submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in June as required by law.
Titled, A Bill for an Act to Amend Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act 2010, the bill, among other benefits, seeks to establish a corporate entity with a well constituted Board of Trustees drawn from CBN, eligible financial institutions, National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and Ministry of Finance, to make regulations for the supervision and management of AMCON fund.
Sponsored by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Bassey Otu, the bill also sought to prohibit any board member or an employee of AMCON from being directly or indirectly involved in the purchase of assets acquired by the corporation.
Otu also said the amendment bill sought to empower AMCON to acquire assets that are already subject to litigation if there is no valid court order restraining it from doing so.
Most of the senators who contributed to the bill lamented that a few years after it was set up, AMCON has failed to live up to its objective of recovering toxic debts owned by some commercial banks.
The Senate Committee on Banking to which the bill was committed was therefore asked to find out the exact amount pumped into AMCON by CBN, how it has made effective use of it as well as how much it has recovered.
While insisting that the committee must investigate what AMCON had done with the N5.6 trillion, Senator Ita Enang said the sum exceeded Nigeria’s yearly budget with the allegation that since the company commenced operations, it has failed to recover up to 15 per cent of the entire money.
He therefore advised the committee to examine the functions and operations of AMCON, noting that it is disheartening that the organisation appeared to be failing in spite of the amount committed to it by CBN, which was not free money but rather a loan meant to be paid back to the Federation Account.
In his remark, Senate President, David Mark, said the toxic debt that AMCON was mandated to manage was not yielding any fruitful result and the Federal Government is now asked to subsidise it.
He stated that those found culpable in such fruitless exercise must be punished.
The committee is expected to report back to the Senate in two weeks
The decision to investigate the activities of the Presidential Committee on the Resettlement of Bakassi people was taken following the adoption of a motion introduced by Robinson Uwak (PDP, Akwa Ibom) on the urgent need to direct the Presidential Committee to review its report in order to be inclusive of the aboriginal inhabitants of the peninsula.
Leading the debate on the motion, Uwak noted that the report by the Presidential Committee submitted to the Vice President does not include the planned resettlement of the original inhabitants of Bakassi Peninsula, who are of Ibibio, Obolo, Ilaje, Eket, Ijaw, Oron and Okobo origins, including Igbo traders.
He explained that “there is a difference between the people of Bakassi Local Government of Cross River State and aborigines of Bakassi Peninsula who are of Ibibio, Obolo, Eket Oron Ijaw Ilaje, and Igbo origins, from such communities as Okobo (Okobo tribe), Oron (Oron), Mbo (Oron) Udung Uko (Oron), Urue-ofong Oruko (Oron), Uruan (Ibibio) Nsit Atai (Ibibio), Esit Eket (Eket and Obolo”).
According to him, these people constitute the majority of people displaced when the Nigerian authorities ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon adding that the implementation of the Presidential report has been proposed in the 2014 budget.
The lawmaker expressed worry that the implementation of the proposed budgetary implementation will cause harm and exclude Nigerians who ought to be included in the resettlement by the Federal Government.
He also expressed concern that “the people of Okobo, Oron, Ijaw, Eket, Obolo, Ilaje, Ibibio, Ijaw and Igbo traders who still have their means of livelihood in the peninsula are being ill-treated, maimed, abused and unfairly taxed by the Cameroonian gendarmes.
According to him, these people constitute the majority of people displaced when the Nigerian authorities ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroun, adding that the implementation of the Presidential report has been proposed in the 2014 budget.
The lawmaker expressed worry that the implementation of the proposed budgetary implementation will cause harm and exclude Nigerians who ought to be included in the resettlement by the Federal Government.
He also expressed concern that “the people of Okobo, Oron, Ijaw, Eket, Obolo, Ilaje, Ibibio, Ijaw and Igbo traders who still have their means of livelihood in the peninsula are being ill-treated, maimed, abused and unfairly taxed by the Cameroonian gendarmes.
“The action of the Camerounian authorities are contrary to a bilateral agreement signed by Nigeria and Cameroun and also contrary to the provisions of Articles 2,4,5,6 and 21 of the Banjul Treaty (African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights), agreed to by all members of the African Union.
He, therefore, sought the leave of the House to prevail on the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to take legal action against the Republic of Cameroun for breaches of African Human Rights Law relating to the unfair taxation of Nigerians still living in the Peninsula.
Supporting the motion, chairman of the House committee on Foreign Affairs, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje (PDP, Abia) said there was need to invite the Presidential Committee on Resettlement of the Bakassi people as well as the minister for Foreign Affairs to explain to the House the state of the programme.
In his contribution, Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe (PDP, Imo), submitted that the appropriate thing to do was to investigate the Presidential Committee before seeking legal action against the Camerounian authorities.
The Presidential Committee led by the Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Effiok Essien Cobham, last year submitted the report of its findings to the Vice President, Namadi Sambo.
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