The last may not have been heard on the renewed
tussle between President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly over which arm of government has the final say on the national budget.
tussle between President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly over which arm of government has the final say on the national budget.
Jonathan had a few days ago blamed the National Assembly for the
inability of the executive arm of government to achieve full
implementation of the annual budgets and accused the
lawmakers of
multilating the budget proposals sent to the parliament, rendering it
unimplementable.
But the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal,
who was present at the event insisted that the legislature had
constitutional rights over appropriation bills as the elected
representatives of the people.
However, the Senate yesterday joined the fray as it faulted Jonathan’s position on the issue.
Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said it was not true that the lawmakers were over-stepping their bounds in the handling of the appropriation bills sent to the National Assembly.
Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said it was not true that the lawmakers were over-stepping their bounds in the handling of the appropriation bills sent to the National Assembly.
Ekweremadu who spoke at the opening of a public hearing on “A bill for
an Act to Establish Erosion Control and Prevention Commission”, said
that the National Assembly had the right to adjust budget proposals sent
to it by the executive but has been villified whenever it exercised
this right in the past.
According to Ekweremadu, it was to avoid this recurring row between the legislature and the executive that the National Assembly decided not to tamper with the 2012 appropriation bill but to pass the proposals as they were sent to the parliament.
He challenged the executive arm of government to ensure full
implementation of this year's budget as there would no longer be any
excuse of legislative mutilation.
“We are challenging the executive to ensure a hundred per cent
implementation of the 2012 Appropriation Act. They can no longer have
any excuse because we returned it substantially as it was presented to
avoid being blamed for making alterations or delayed passage of the
budget,” he said.
The Senate, Ekweremadu said, would also welcome the idea of the
executive going to the Supreme Court to seek legal interpretation of the
power of appropriation as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
According to him, the Senate believes that the power of appropriation
constitutionally belonged to the National Assembly but would abide by
the ruling of the Supreme Court on the issue.
Chairman Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola
Saraki, who spoke on the essence of the erosion control commission bill
explained that studies have shown that every one of the 36 state of the
federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had one form of
environmental problem or the other.
Saraki said besides these natural environmental problems, there were
also man-made problems in the environment. These include air and water
pollution arising from human and industrial activities.
“There is no doubt that erosion problem in the country has become a
serious menace dislodging the delicate equilibrium of our ecosystem,
results in the loss of human lives and destroyed infrastructure, thereby
causing social dislocation of affected population especially in the
rural areas and affecting the national economy among others.
There is no gainsaying that we need a new approach to tackling the
problem, but while doing this we must have at the back of our minds the
other ecological issues such as desertification, flooding and climate
change,” Saraki said. Source: Thisday
No comments:
Post a Comment