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| President Goodluck Jonathan |
The lawmakers say Mr. Jonathan will be impeached if the 2012
budget is not properly implemented.
The face-off between the House of Representatives and
President Goodluck Jonathan continued, Thursday, as some lawmakers served Mr.
Jonathan a shocking impeachment warning, threatening to remove him from office
if the 2012 budget was not fully implemented by September.
The impeachment warning by the Lawmakers followed a motion
by Femi Gbajabiamila, the Minority Leader.
Citing an order of privilege, Mr. Gbajabiamila, a member of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), argued that the president was in
negligence of his primary duty of implementing the budget which would have
addressed the nation’s poor infrastructure.
"The President, by failing to implement the budget as
passed by this honourable House, violates the 1999 Constitution and is therefore
liable to be impeached under section 143 of the 1999 constitution," Mr.
Gbajabiamila said.
The lawmaker said that while the House should respect the
President's personality, there was need to mete out the penalty, as a deterrent
to leaders who flout the laws.
"Therefore, I want to hereby submit, that come
September, we will begin to invoke and draw up articles of impeachment of Mr.
President," he declared while receiving a rousing support of members.
Blame Finance
Minister
Mr. Gbajabiamila had hardly finished his speech when he was
interrupted by Karibo Soalaboye (PDP/Bayelsa), who represents the President’s
constituency in the House.
Mr. Soalaboye maintained that budget concerns should be laid
at the table of the Ministry of Finance.
The Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, agreed with Mr. Soalaboye and
sustained his argument.
Poor budget
implementation
The impeachment threat came on the heels of a motion by
Albert Sam-Tsokwa (PDP/Taraba) and 20 others on the non-implementation of budgets by the Executive.
Mr. Sam-Tsokwa described the budget implementation as an
annual national failure, saying only 30 per cent of the budget was implemented
on average.
The motion was widely debated by 20 Chairmen of key House
committees, including the Committees on Appropriations, Finance, Works,
Agriculture, Customs, Gas, and Petroleum(Upstream).
Mr. Sam-Tsokwa expressed concern that seven months into the
2012 fiscal year, the implementation of the budget, as reported by the MDAs,
indicates that the recurrent expenditure is judiciously implemented, while the
capital expenditure is abysmally implemented.
Blame Jonathan for
PIB delay
Earlier, Mr. Tambuwal called on Nigerians to hold the
President responsible for the eventual delay that the passage of the Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB) may face.
Mr. Jonathan was accused of sending the new PIB to the House
on a day the chamber was commencing its annual break. The lawmakers commenced
their annual break after Thursday’s sitting and are expected to resume on
September 17.
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