The anger that swelled in the chamber of the House of Representatives on Tuesday against President Goodluck Jonathan over the 2015 budget was doused by the Speaker of the House, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who himself had been in a running battle with the President.
Tambuwal had earlier pacified the members weeks ago against moving for the President’s impeachment, following the way he reacted to the Speaker’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tuesday’s anger stemmed from a letter sent to the House by the President, in which he appealed to the legislators to bear with him concerning the situation at hand.
Jonathan also wanted the presentation of the budget before the consideration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which the legislators argued was against the law.
The legislators were also miffed that despite being hale and hearty, Jonathan, for the second time, would not be coming to the House to present the budget but would instead be sending the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the National Assembly on Wednesday for the presentation.
Last year, the President did not present the budget to the National Assembly in person, thus making history as the first Nigerian President to do so.
The presidency tried in vain to convince Nigerians that there was nothing abnormal in Jonathan’s refusal to present the budget.
The letter from Jonathan on Tuesday read : “in consonance with the provision of Section 81 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, I write to request that the Honourable House grant the Honourable Minister of Finance the slot of 11. 00 am on Wednesday, 17th December, 2014 to enable her lay before you the 2015 Budget Estimates.
“I am cognisant of the fact that the Budget Estimates are being presented before the passage of the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). This is due to the extra-ordinary global circumstances that confronted us in the latter quarter of the 2014 fiscal year.
“As you know, the first MTEF with a budget benchmark of $78 a barrel was submitted to the National Assembly on 30th September, 2014 and discussion on the MTEF and budget construction based on those estimates began with the relevant committees of the National Assembly.
“However, shortly after that first submission, oil prices began to fall precipitously leading to a revision of the oil benchmark price in the MTEF to $73 per barrel which was resubmitted to the National Assembly on 18th November, 2014.
“Following this, the decision of OPEC at their meeting in Vienna on 27th November, 2014 not to cut production to support the price led to further precipitous fall in the oil price to below $70 per barrel.
“This led, one more time to another downward revision of the benchmark price to $65 per barrel and a revised MTEF which we again submitted to you on 2nd December, 2014.
“The uncertainty surrounding the global price of crude oil and its continuous fall has occasioned delays in both the submission of a final MTEF and budget estimates, and we thus request your kind consideration of both of these items together in view of our national budget calendar.
“We would like to confirm that having submitted these budget estimates, we are not proposing further revision of the oil benchmark price. Though prices continue to be extremely volatile at present and to trend further downwards, there are indications, based on the price intelligence we have at this time, that prices may range between US$65 – US$70 a barrel in 2015, Nevertheless, we would like to emphasize that there is no iron clad guarantee where oil prices are concerned due to numerous underlying global geo-political factors that are outside our control and unpredictable. Should prices fall below the range, the country would have to make further adjustments.
“We hope that despite these circumstances, the Honourable Members will give kind and due consideration to the budget estimates in sufficient time for us to implement the 2015.”
Attempts by some of the lawmakers to reject granting approval to the President’s request were turned down by Tambuwal who appealed to the lawmakers to consider it for the good of the nation and since the President had said it was because of the situation on ground.
While some of the lawmakers thought the President had no respect for the National Assembly for repeating what he did last year by sending Okonjo-Iweala to the National Assembly, others thought that the President was scared that he may be booed and disgraced again as it happened two years ago.
Jonathan is currently facing a tough challenge from the National Assembly members both with and outside his party.
From within his party, the legislators are angry that he put their political destinies in the hands of the various state governors on the platform of the PDP.
Those in the APC are angry with the shoddy and illegal way he allegedly wanted to throw the Speaker out of his seat by resorting to the use of force through the Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba. These set of lawmakers have been, with aggrieved members of the PDP, threatening to impeach the President since he allowed the police to invade the Assembly complex.