Senator Asks Okonjo-Iweala, Ngama To Resign Over State Of Economy

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonka -
Iweala and her junior, Dr. Yerima Ngama
have both been asked to resign if they lack
ideas on how to run the economy. Senator Abdulmumuni Muhammad Hassan,
who stated this in an exclusive interview
culled from LEADERSHIP SUNDAY said, “I
believe the two ministers of finance are
short of ideas and if that is the case, they
should resign and allow other people to come in and inject fresh blood and ideas into
the economy.” According to him, “the minister of state was
reported to have said that the budget
cannot be implemented and yet, Ngozi is
telling us that the economy is buoyant”. The lawmaker also stated that, “Our
sources of revenue has not decreased,
nobody has come out to say there is a short
fall. So why won’t they implement the
budget fully? We the PDP are feeling guilty
and ashamed of what is happening to the economy. Nobody doubts that they have
good qualifications, but their ideas are
exhausted and we advise them to resign
and allow the president to bring in fresh
blood into the system”. Hassan, who represents Jigawa South/West
Senatorial District in the upper chamber of
the National Assembly and has sponsored
three bills in the Senate, further stated that
his bill on fire service will among other
things compel the government to equip and upgrade the fire service by providing latest
technology. It will also ensure that lives and
property of Nigerians are saved from fire
disasters. It would be recalled that Comptroller
General of the Federal Fire Service, Mr.
Olusegun Okebiorun some few months ago
said the country loses N50 billion to fire
disasters annually.

E DON HAPPEN ---> FG Can’t Meet ASUU’s Demands, Says Okonjo-Iweala

If the words of the Minister of Finance, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are to be believed, the
five-week old strike action by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may not
be resolved anytime soon as she declared
that government has no resources to meet the union’s demands. Speaking earlier today in Minna at the
annual National Council on Finance and
Economic Development meeting with
theme, “Restructuring Nigeria’s Finances”,
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala explained that the
striking university lecturers were asking for N92 billion in extra allowances; an obligation
the Federal Government cannot meet as it
moves to reduce the structure of public
expenditures. According to the coordinating minister for
the economy, “At present ASUU wants the
government to pay N92 billion in extra
allowances when resources are not there
and when we are working to integrate past
increases in pensions. We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to
the stage where recurrent expenditures
take the bulk of our resources and people
get paid but can do no work.” She argued that if the demands of the
striking lecturers are met and “we continue
to pay them salaries and allowances, we will
not be able to provide infrastructure in the
universities.” The minister noted that when she assumed
office “the share of recurrent expenditure
in our total budgets had increased
astronomically. “ “In fact recurrent expenditures accounted
for about 77.2 per cent of the federal
budget and we are now working to re-
balance this ratio,” she added.