N5000 note: Stop Sanusi now, N’Assembly tells Jonathan

Lawmakers not briefed on new monetary policy, says Mark
 … Tambuwal tackles President on budget implementation
 
From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja
 
The National Assembly resumed from its two-month summer recess yesterday with both Houses asking the Federal Government to stop work on the proposed N5000 note and new coins. They are expected to be introduced in the first quarter of next year.
 
In unison, both the Senate and House of Representatives said the new policy is anti-people. The lawmakers were furious that they learnt of the new policy through newspaper reports. The legislators were angry that the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) endorsed a policy they (lawmakers) rejected. Recall that the Senate cut short its recess, reconvened, stopping further process on the new monetary policy stopped.
 
Senate President David Mark said the Upper Legislative Chamber’s stand on the policy is that it should not be introduced now. As the number three citizen, Mark claimed that he read of the proposed policy in the newspapers like other Nigerians. “Somebody asked me whether I was briefed and I want to reply you that the only briefing I got was on the pages of newspapers.
 
“The important thing is that if Nigerians say they don’t want a particular policy at any given moment, there is no harm in government retracing its step on the issue and I think that is the situation we find ourselves”, he said. The Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, tackled President Goodluck Jonathan on this year’s budget implementation. The House yesterday threatened further action on the President in the coming weeks if its committees establish that he treated the 2012 Appropriation Act like a “document of convenience”.
 
The Reps insisted that the President must sack the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh, even as they toed same path with the Senators on their opposition to the N5000 note and coins. Rising from a heated two-hour closed door session on the state of the nation, the Senate yesterday urged President Jonathan to stop the new monetary policy. It said the move is ill-timed and wrong. Drama, however, trailed resumption of the plenary.
 
The first Order Paper distributed to newsmen showed that there was no legislative business for the day. For more than two hours, Senators were locked in a closed door session and upon resumption of plenary, another Order Paper showed that the Chamber would entertain a motion, which was initially on notice. Chairman of the Rules and Business Committee, Ita Enang, raised the motion under Orders 42 and 52 of the Senate Standing Orders.
 
Mark allowed Enang to dispense with the notice and proceed with the substantive motion. In his lead debate, Enang said, “the policy would create multiple economic problems like inflation, corruption and security challenges and would erode the value of the nation’s currency and ruin the economy.” Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba seconded the motion. He said: “I second this very timely motion. In a democracy, no matter how strongly you believe in a policy, it can never claim a monopoly of knowledge or wisdom.
 
“Monopoly of knowledge, monopoly of wisdom is strange in a democracy. When people say they don’t want it, it’s their right to reject what they say is not good for them. “This is one moment all our policy-makers must listen to Nigerians. I remember that our former leaders, General Yakubu Gowon and former President Olusegun Obasanjo have spoken against it.
 
At this point, some Senators shouted that Mark should put the question to enable the chamber vote on the motion. But the Senate President insisted that members must be allowed to talk and let Nigerians know the stand of the Senate on the matter. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu noted that most Senators had “spoken to our constituents and there is no public hearing that can be greater than that. We should take a stand now.” But the Senate President called on many Senators to speak their minds on the new monetary policy. Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi flawed arguments advanced by President Jonathan’s economic team.
 
“I used the recess to find out the motive for this policy. The first is the issue of dollarisation of the naira; rather than hide the loot in dollars, a member of the country’s National Economic Management Team (NEMT) said it would now be used with the N5, 000 note. “This is not a policy that his country should support.” Finance Committee Chairman, Ahmed Makarfi said that the President’s economic team does not spend the naira and so, cannot feel the pains of Nigerians. “I read in the newspapers the governor said the other day that the new N5000 is not meant for everybody. When we said the note is not meant for everybody, that’s a slight on the people of Nigeria.
 
“The CBN governor picks and chooses which aspect of the CBN Act (2007) he wants to respect. During our recess, Senate directed him to suspend the policy and instead, the NEMT came out to support it. Also yesterday, the Reps handed its Committee on Legislative Compliance 14 days to monitor President Jonathan’s level of compliance with a resolution, two months ago, urging him to sack Oteh. Fresh from the two-month holiday, the House directed the CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to await the report of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, headed by Hon. Jones Onyereri.
 
Leading the debate, Hon. Albert T. Sam-Tsokwa and 20 others, spoke against the new monetary policy, describing it as “anti-people.” On Oteh, the House said it would henceforth, “cease to accord any recognition or deal with her as Director-General of Securities and Exchange Commission” should President Jonathan fail to implement its resolution requesting her sack.
 
Earlier, welcoming his colleagues after the recess, Tambuwal dimmed hopes of an early resolution of their face-off with the Presidency over the budget which began few days before the lawmakers went on recess. Tambuwal said the House was mindful of the various interpretations given their “sit-up” ultimatum to President Jonathan on the budget, but that such “suspicion and slander” cannot stop the House from carrying out its oversight functions.
 
Lamenting that Appropriation Acts have been reduced to a “yearly ritual…,observed more in the breach than execution”, Tambuwal said the House resolved to stop the trend by insisting that budgets be implemented to the letter. As a first step, he said that the House would this week set aside a whole day to debate the report of all the committees it mandated to collate information on the level of funding and implementation by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS).
 
“After the deliberation, the House will suspend plenary for one week but the House work will continue in committees. Within this period, various committees will be required to go on physical inspection of projects and authenticate all information provided by the various MDAs on the level of 2012 budget implementation,” he explained.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/n5000-note-stop-sanusi-now-nassembly-tells-jonathan/

Posted: at 19-09-2012 04:03 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming

sanusi?who appointed him?it is better to appoint market women than those peoples who smoke drugs as minister or giving them a post,,,,,,

Posted: at 16-02-2013 12:52 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac