Vow to drop subsidy removal clauseCNPP, senators oppose NEC, govt on fuel policyBRACING for a close monitoring of the 2012 budget to ensure its proper use for national development, the House of Representatives yesterday advised President Goodluck Jonathan against a selective implementation of the fiscal blueprint.In a vote of thanks read by the House Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, after the presentation of the budget proposal, the lawmakers noted that the National Assembly would be more serious in its oversight function with the aim of enforcing budget implementation.Observing that the budget proposal had come too late, Tambuwal said: 'Listening to you just now Mr. President, we are moved with a feeling of a new spirit to remove the yearly budget presentation from the realm of sheer rhetoric to one of a comprehensive presentation of a workable document. I must, however, note that the budget proposal is again coming rather late in the day.'On our part, we wish to assure Nigerians that we shall do our best to ensure that we complete work on the budget within reasonable time so that the implementation can start early. We hope that this time around, we shall break the jinx of low budget implementation. The truth is, there is no better signal that a government is alive to its responsibility than through its strict adherence to its own budget proposal.'On the need to avoid selective implementation, the Speaker said: 'Let me emphasise that selective budget implementation has no place in our Constitution and the Legislature shall not abdicate its responsibility in ensuring full budget implementation through the instrumentality of oversight.'Also yesterday, some lawmakers described the silence of the President on the issue of removal of subsidy on petroleum products as suspicious, adding that the President's silence may not mean an abandonment of the policy.In his reaction to the President's speech, House Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, said that the President was only tactical by avoiding the issue of subsidy removal in his presentation.'But one cannot conclude right now that the issue of subsidy removal is there or not until one has thoroughly looked at the document. But I can tell you that if the thing is there, we will remove it,' he said.In his own reaction, Representative Victor Ogene (APGA, Anambra State) said the President had no powers to remove the subsidy on fuel by Executive fiat.According to him, the issue of fuel subsidy came via appropriation and can only be removed by the same process which only the National Assembly can do.He, however, commended the President for announcing government's intention to accord zero duty status to rice, wheat as well as electrical equipment and agriculture-related machinery.Dakuku Peterside, Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), described the 2012 budget presentation as a bold step towards the President's transformation agenda.He, however, warned that the President could only achieve his objectives if the usual problem of implementation was tackled head-on.On the recurrent expenditure, which continues to gulp a substantial portion of the budget every year, Peterside called for a radical departure from the norm. According to him, '74 per cent for recurrent is still high despite the fact that it is a reduction from the previous year and domestic debt is equally worrisome.'The lawmaker also described the 23 per cent of the budget proposal earmarked for capital projects as insufficient to do the work.Also, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday faulted the endorsement of the removal of fuel subsidy by the National Economic Council (NEC), warning that it was done without taking into consideration the unimaginable pains it would inflict on Nigerians.In a statement made available to The Guardian in Enugu, the publicity secretary of the group, Osita Okechukwu, also wondered how the decision was reached when the government had failed to address the monumental corruption in the oil sector as shown recently at the Senate Joint Committee.On his part, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who represents Ekiti Central in the National Assembly, has urged Nigerians to rise up and use all constitutional means to resist the proposed removal of subsidy on petroleum products.Ojudu, who said he was ready to join Nigerians to stage protest against the policy because of his conviction that the removal of the subsidy would further impoverish Nigerians, described the policy as a 'struggle between the elite and the rest of Nigerians.'He said he would do everything possible within his power to work against the proposed bill whenever the President presents it at the Senate and called on his colleagues to do the same.The senator, who spoke at a programme tagged 'Stewardship Forum' organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti Council, pleaded with the journalists to kick against the policy as they had done against obnoxious policies of past administrations.Another senator representing Osun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Babajide Omoworare, described the plan to remove fuel subsidy as ungodly. He said that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the National Assembly would fight President Goodluck Jonathan to a standstill on the matter.Omoworare, who is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character, said ACN senatorswere determined to be on the side of the masses by ensuring thatwelfarist programmes were embarked upon by the Federal Government.Delivering a lecture entitled 'Checks and Balances: Nigeria in Search of Credible and Sustainable Election' to mark the 2011 Pen Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) Chapel in Osogbo, Omoworare urged the citizens to stand against fuel subsidy removal in view of its negative implications on the populace.Besides, the House of Representatives Committee on Commerce, Trade and Investment has challenged government agencies both at the federal and state levels to be purposeful in the utilisation of their budgets.Chairman of the committee, Sylvester Ogbanga, said that the inability of government agencies to channel budgets according to needs was encouraging waste and under-development of the country.Addressing staff of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) during the committee's visit to the commission's Enugu zonal office, Ogbanga urged them to avoid unnecessary bottlenecks fuelled by corruption.
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