Written by Taiwo Adisa and Bolaji Ogundele Sunday, 29 July 2012
Ministers who are not performing in the cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan may get into trouble as the ministers have begun weekly report of activities and performances of their ministries to the president.
This is a fallout of the Presidency’s moves to thwart any impeachment move by the House of Representatives.
Sunday Tribune gathered that rather than join the House of Representatives in exchanging words over the implementation of the budget, the president has decided to inundate Nigerians with details of the budget implementation.
Besides, a source said that the president, who is also undertaking the performance of each minister, has designed the budget briefing as a way of exposing any lazy minister.
“The government intends to make available the reports submitted to it by each minister to the National Assembly such that they could undertake independent assessment of such reports and any minister who is found to have lied with figures would be made to face the music,” a source said on Friday.
It was gathered that the order had already come into effect with the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, taking the first short last Tuesday.
It was also gathered that ahead of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings, the ministers are mandated to brief the president on performances and constraints facing the implementation of the budget in their ministries.
Also, the ministers would brief the FEC meeting on Wednesday after explaining the details to the president a day earlier.
The Minister of Agric last Wednesday announced a 68 per cent performance of the budget.
He said his ministry was meeting its targets on all fronts after successfully tackling what he called political farmers and their antics in the distribution of fertilisers.
Sources also confirmed that reports already in the Presidency confirmed that other ministries, including works, aviation, trasport, FCT, water resources, health and education, have also reported positive figures in the performance of the budget.
It was gathered that aviation is reporting 60 per cent, while health is also reporting a similar figure in the perfoamance of its capital votes.
The House of Representatives had on its last day of sitting before embarking on an eight-week recess issued a threat to impeach the president if the government fails to implement the budget by 100 per cent by September.
The House has continued to defend the threat, which many have described as needless.
But a soruce said that the Presidency was not leaving anything to chance and that the government was bent on delivering on its promises.
“Since the area the lawmakers mentioned has to do with delivering the dividends of democracy, the Presidency has decided to tidy its books, check out who is doing what and ensure that it is going along the path it set out to go in terms of budget implementation. The government is bent on delivering the goods and would not take the issue of budget implementation lightly,” another source said.
Meanwhile, The statement by the House of Representatives to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan over budget implementation is the legislators’ way of fighting back over the fuel subsidy probe bribery scandal.
This was stated on Saturday by a pressure group, “Group All of Us” (GAU) during a media chat in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
According to GAU, it would be difficult for the legislators to convince Nigerians that their intentions were genuine due to the large number of scandals that had emanated from their activities lately.
President of the group, Jackson Lekan Ojo, who spoke on behalf of the group, said there was nothing wrong in the legislature wielding the big stick when the executive was going wrong, adding that the move wouldonly strengthen the principles of democracy.
http://tribune.com.ng/sun/front-page-articles/8045-impeachment-lazy-ministers-in-trouble-as-ministers-begin-weekly-briefing-of-president-on-activities-performance-presidency-to-forward-reports-to-nass-reps-are-only-fighting-back-group
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