Reps’ 50 questions for Okonjo-Iweala

However, what should be a routine process of exchange of information between the Committee and the Ministry of Finance was reduced to political theatre. Honouring the Committee’s invitation, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala appeared before it only to plead being indisposed and would not be able to proceed with the session. Committee members agreed that she could leave, […]

However, what should be a routine process of exchange of information between the Committee and the Ministry of Finance was reduced to political theatre. Honouring the Committee’s invitation, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala appeared before it only to plead being indisposed and would not be able to proceed with the session. Committee members agreed that she could leave, and then handed her the questionnaire answers to which they wanted submitted in writing. With this development, the minister appeared to have dealt with her indisposition and said she would answer all the queries extempore. The Committee members insisted on a written response.
Beyond this however lies a more fundamental flaw in the nature of interaction between agents of two of the three arms of the government as far as the nation’s fiscal management is concerned. It betrays the extent of disconnect between the various agencies of government with respect to general administration. On one hand, the development captures the adversarial stance of some aspects the legislature towards the executive arm; and the rather presumptuous conduct of the minister in assuming she could verbally deal with the weighty issues raised in the 50 questions summarised what she-and perhaps the administration-thought of the National Assembly, or a part of it.
A perusal of the questions indicates that some of them raised valid issues, although many others exposed the Committee’s sloppy work because they were inapplicable if members had been active.
Besides, the appearance of the dependence of the legislature on the executive arm for information on the economy is problematic because it makes nonsense of the power and autonomy of the National Assembly.  The legislature should be blamed for this. For some time now, there had been sensitization programmes for public awareness of the establishment by the National Assembly of its own think tank on the economy – specifically the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO).  Given that the project had enjoyed copious allocation of public funds over the years, it remains a fact that its participation in this enquiry by the Finance Committee seems to be peripheral.  That is unacceptable. The NABRO needs to be spruced up without further delay for the country to benefit from the work it is supposed to be doing.
On the other hand, the minister’s eventual response, prompt as it certainly was by any Nigerian standard, betrays insensitivity to the concerns of wider Nigerian public, especially in times like the present when the state of the economy is of particular interest to all. Tall on plaudits for the ‘superlative’ achievements of the administration, it lacks convincing ‘firepower’ to sway public mood in the direction of endorsing its claims wholesale, or address doubts that the economy is doing well.  Its major weakness is that it is offering little in addition to the routine claims of the administration’s self-rating. This is not all or what Nigerians want to hear from the minister as the principal public servant in charge of the public till and directing the course of the economy.
Conspicuously missing are clear-cut details on the vexatious issues of continuing leakages in government revenue and beneficiaries of the much-abused import waiver regime, job creation and poverty eradication.
 The recent 3-way tango between the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Presidency over the whereabouts of huge chunks of unremitted oil revenue underscored the need for such questioning of government by relevant committees of the National Assembly. The Nigerian economy is critical and increasingly becoming so complex it would be foolhardy to entrust it to the exclusive management of a few handpicked individuals, no matter their personal endowments. It is the bounden duty of public officers, in accordance with their oaths of office, to discharge their duties by responding to such queries when directed at them.