Members
of the House of Representatives on Thursday engaged their guest, the
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in hot exchange over the
state of the economy.
At the end of the day, the lawmakers sent the minister away with 50-question homework.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the
coordinating minister for the economy for the President Goodluck
Jonathan administration, had appeared before the House Committee on
Finance to address members on the state of the nation’s economy.
But, the session, which was chaired by
Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, turned stormy shortly after the minister
complained that she was indisposed to speak.
About three hours earlier, Okonko-Iweala
had laid the estimates of the 2014 budget before the whole House where
she looked excited, smiling and waving at lawmakers in acknowledgement
of their cheers.
In response to the minister’s complaint
of not feeling well to speak, the committee offered to grant her two
weeks of rest and to reappear to speak to members at the end of the rest
period.
The minister however shouted, “No, no, no,” and accused the committee members of being rude and hasty in dismissing her.
She said the tone of the committee chairman was disrespectful to a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
She observed that she had noticed a
trend in Jibrin’s conduct, which she said was to harass her and members
of her team. The minister consequently changed her mind and said she was
ready to entertain questions from the members.
But Jibrin objected, saying, “We will
not take you in present state that you say you are not feeling fine.
That is why it is the view of the committee that we give you time to
come back.
“We are concerned about your health.”
He argued that it was better to hear
from the minister when she was fully fit than allow her to address
issues relating to the economy “half-heartedly.”
This further infuriated Okonjo-Iweala, who replied that she was not a “slacker.”
The committee insisted on the earlier ruling and dismissed her.
But, in doing so, Jibrin handed her a
document containing 50 questions, which he said the minister must answer
at her next appointment with the committee.
One of the questions sought to know how
an economy that spent 80 per cent of its annual budget on recurrent
spending could claim to be “one of the fastest growing economies?”
Another question required her to list the “major economic achievements of this government in 2013.”
She was also asked why Nigeria’s economy could not grow beyond “single digit GDP.”
On debts, the committee asked, “Why
should our internal debts continue to represent more than two-thirds of
Nigeria’s external debt profile, when the cost of servicing domestic
debts is ridiculously far more expensive that servicing external debts?”
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