The verbal war between the National Assembly and presidential aides on the budget deepened at the weekend with the legislature accusing the Presidency of selective amnesia. The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said that President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides are deliberately courting trouble with the National Assembly over which arm of government has the final say on appropriation bills.

Ekweremadu’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Okey Ozoani, said presidential aides seem uninformed about the functions of the National Assembly and its constitutional right on national budgets. Ozoani was reacting to comments by Presidential Adviser, Ahmed Gulak, who, in an interview last week, said that the National Assembly should be blamed for poor budget implementation. He said: “We note with displeasure another feat of thoughtless and disparaging statements directed at the National Assembly and its officers coming from the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Ali Gulak. “Gulak, in the said interview, claims that the National Assembly should be blamed for poor budget implementation, accusing the institution of late passage of the Appropriation Act, among other spurious allegations.

He also claims that the Deputy President of the Senate said that most National Assembly members were illiterates. “However, this coming from Mr. Gulak, who had found pleasure in courting trouble for the Presidency by his reckless statements on not just the National Assembly and its officers, but also respected elder statesmen of the Federal Republic, is not surprising. “While the Deputy President of the Senate would not want to join issues with Gulak, it is imperative for the presidential adviser to know the limits of his importance-seeking, fawning, and trouble-courting fits.

“First, it is unfortunate that Gulak was quick to point out when the 2012 national budget was passed without also stating when it was submitted to the National Assembly. The 2012 Appropriation Bill was submitted in December 2011 and passed by the National Assembly in March 2012. Gulak’s claim that enough work goes into the Appropriation Bills before submission to the National Assembly does not in any way preclude the parliament as co-managers of the economy from subjecting such budget estimates to legislative scrutiny and due process,” he said. Ekweremadu wondered why aides would deliberately court trouble for the President when he (Jonathan) had heeded calls by the National Assembly for early presentation of the budget which would aid implementation.

Ekweremadu said: “It is also gratifying that the President had taken into account the observations of the National Assembly on the need for early submission of budget estimates by submitting the 2013 Appropriation Bill earlier, this time, in October. “However, if Gulak’s understanding of the role of the legislature in a democracy in relation to appropriation and if how he manned the Adamawa State House of Assembly as the Speaker was to rubber-stamp everything brought by the executive, he should wake up to the realities at the federal level as things are done differently because the National Assembly is not a rubber stamp.

“Second, his claims that the Deputy Senate President said that most National Assembly members were illiterates is no less spurious and insulting. “To put matters straight, the Deputy Senate President, while speaking on the topic: “The political ideology of the Great Zik of Africa and challenges of leadership in Nigeria” at the second Zik Annual Lecture Series organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Awka, Anambra State, stressed that 21st Century Nigeria needed knowledgeable leadership at all levels that could effectively drive development and realize the lofty dreams of the nation’s founding fathers.

“While the Deputy President of Senate does not see anything wrong with stressing the need for knowledge-driven leadership at all levels and arms of government such as exhibited by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, for Mr. Gulak to denigrate the National Assembly or use the very clear and innocuous observations by the Deputy Senate President on the need for better representation by some parts of the South-East at the National Assembly as a cover-up for his well-publicised and unrepentant insults and disdain towards the National Assembly is considered highly improper, sweeping, disparaging, and mischievous.

“Instructively, even the said publications Gulak referred to make it clear that, on the National Assembly, Senator Ekweremadu strictly spoke about the South-East, and in fact, two states, which he advised should always send their very best, in the mould of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to the National Assembly, given the abundance of intellectuals in the states. “At no time did the report quote the Senator as saying that most National Assembly members cannot write their names. “It is also doubtful that Gulak read the report first hand to digest it and he obviously did not request a copy of the said lecture delivered by the Deputy President of the Senate or better still call it up from the internet to read and digest since he spends his ample time thriving in reckless statements and jumping into other people’s work schedule.

This, added to lack of political manners, leaves him with no locus standi whatsoever to dabble into the affairs of the hallowed institution of the National Assembly. The Deputy Senate President noted that while Gulak’s brief should be how to build bridges for the President, much in the same mould as presidential National Assembly Adviser, Senator Joy Emodi. “It is unfortunate that Gulak, who is supposed to be neck deep in gainful political strategies and bridge-building for Mr. President, has practically reassigned himself the disreputable role of trouble-making, meddlesome interloping and indeed bridge breaking.

“One would expect Gulak to allow the Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi, who is experienced in the matters of the National Assembly, having been a distinguished senator of great repute, to continue with her mature handling of matters relating to the institution rather than muddling things up. Or does Gulak also want to take over the job of Presidential Adviser on National Assembly which the President must have put several things into consideration before making a choice for the appointment? “Let it be made clear, once again, that the National Assembly has no issues with the President and Commander-in-Chief.

It is rather people like Gulak that are bent on stage-managing crisis of confidence for reasons best known to them. “While it is gratifying that Mr. President has recently had cause to disown Gulak over his poor conduct and unguarded statements hauled at the National Assembly and its officers, for the umpteenth time, it s advisable for Mr. President to review the stewardship and real inner motives of Mr. Ahmed Gulak whom, either unconscious of his job schedule or lacking the competence to undertake it, is preoccupied with fomenting trouble for his administration,” he said.

www.sunnewsonline.com/new/national/budget-crisis-deepens-as-ekweremadu-blasts-gulak-jonathans-aide/

*sighs*


*hisses*

Money Money Money

You can only hear them shout when it comes to Money.

How many of them have shouted about the state of insecurity and shedding of innocent blood?

They should approve the damn budget and lets move on, what do they wanna correct there.

THERE WAS A NATION

There is mayhem on the streets
Screams of pain coming out plentifully from onlookers
Blood flowing from dissected bodies
While others are aligned to be beheaded
A new movie indeed and the actors performing well
Buckets after buckets of animal blood is thrown
Height of cinematography being choreographed
But it yet brings to mind the decay in our society
A society that diversity is the trusting bond
And religion the apple of discord sown

There was once a nation
Flourishing under the watchful eyes of the slave-masters
Civilization they call it but in reality modern slavery
Noble families elected and taught the secret
Grin to your masters and your reward shall be much
Eyes opened and the slaves reveled
No more colonies we want our country
Governed by us and protected by our own laws
The slave-masters are shamed
Years of investment going down the drain
What more can be used to destroy the new nation of diversity
Aye!!! The apple of discord sown in religion

So our travails began
No succor to the many wars fought
Not with guns but with crude weapons of ancient weaponry
Daggers and bamboo sticks made ready for such purpose
Chants of war cry while the innocent suffers the brunt
O! There was a nation
Whose place has been overtaken
But solace it found in spilling blood
Blood of the poor masses and downtrodden
While the wielders of powers stay put on seat
Watching the sport of blood

There is a nation!!!
Whose advancement in technology meant death
Bombs improvised in the name of religion
While the nation becomes the testing sites
If ever you get to heaven
Ask the creator why there is a nation
And if there be any answer
Reveal it to me in a dream
While I drown my sorrows in this keg of plamwine

Dedicated to the Victims of Kaduna Bomb Blast

Very long thread! "Yawns"

No need of reading this LONG STORY. Too much BLA BLA everyday from those CROOKS.

Occupational hazard, they should deal with it.

So the deputy senate president has an aide as well

Hahaha..it just occurrd to me that if it was anoda person who made or was said to hv made d statements credictd to d Deputy Senate President on d 'illiteracy' of d lawmakers, the entire Assembly wud hv bn up at arms- calling for public hearings, threatening, calling for resignatns and sackings etc- but now since it wud be 'obituary' one of dier own that is said to hv said this, SILENCE.....Anyways, @topic d National Assembly and d Executive shld quit binkering as KIDS even if they disagree; there are serious things that needs doing

berem: Very long thread! "Yawns"

e be like say you no ge shekpe today,you sound peaceful today abi na your birthday be today.

chucky234: e be like say you no ge shekpe today,you sound peaceful today abi na your birthday be today.

e never chop today.

I've said it severally that GEJ has the worst set of media aides in the world. They've done the president more harm than good. Anyway, that's the price for engaging politicians rather than professionals.

Somebody should remind the NA that it is the job of the executive to engineer and manage the economy while the National Assembly is there to appropriate funds to drive the executive policies, not to provide the policies themselves. NA cannot get budget from the President, throw it aside, come up with their own, approve, send to the President to approve and in the course of the oversight, monitor its execution. That is not Democracy. They need to study the writings of John Locke on the philosophical basis of Democracy.
I just wish that the President will put on a steel boot and crush some political skulls. This guy's humility is being taken for granted by these folks.

Gosh!!!

This is just the period we need the like of Ghalli Na'abbah and Okadigbo in that Legislative building. Jonathan for don SIT UP since.

All we have now are corrupt toothless bulldogs.

l

berem: Very long thread! "Yawns"

Definitely not meant for imb*eciles.