Budget: Mark, Tambuwal unfair to Jonathan - Okupe

SENIOR Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, on Thursday, said the Senate President, David Mark and Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, are not being fair to the president over their comments during the presentation of 2013 budget estimates.The president's aide, who briefed newsmen in Abuja, said Jonathan should be commended by both leaders, instead of attacking him in their respective speeches, saying that 'yesterday (Wednesday), the president delivered the 2013 budget speech, making him the first president in several years to do so three months ahead of the commencement of the new financial year.'Okupe, who frowned on the comment of the Senate president on his claim that the National Assembly was not a rubber stamp, maintained that 'the president and his administration do not expect and had never conceived the idea that in a healthy democracy, not just the Senate, but the National Assembly will just rubber-stamp whatever it presents.'According to him, 'it is quite clear that this is not a high handed administration and it is not dogmatic in any way. In a healthy democracy, there is useful exchange of ideas and deliberation over various national issues or issues of national importance, until reasonable agreements are reached.'He also said Mark's reference to the budget figures as mere estimates 'demean the quality of the document itself, adding that 'the budget represents the vision, intention and definitive steps that the government intends to take over the next 12 months.'On Tambuwal's speech that members of the House of Representatives were unimpressive both in terms of releases as well as utilisation of the 2012 budget, Okupe said 'I do not want to repeat myself and I also do not want to accuse anybody of bias or anything like that. But we feel that that the judgment was unfair.
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