Ministers miss work to join presidential campaign

The regional flagoff of Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential campaign is taking a toll on the nation’s governance as multiple ministers were absent from the 2011 budget defence at the National Assembly.

Budget defence is a significant annual ritual in the process of preparing the budget and traditionally, lawmakers do not discuss any ministry or government agency’s budget without the head of the ministry or agency.

On Monday, a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Gas called off the hearing for the Ministry of Petroleum’s 2011 budget defence due to the absence of the Minister of Petroleum Diezani Alison Madueke.

According to the ministry’s permanent secretary, Goni Musa Sheikh, who led the delegation, the petroleum minister had returned from a journey the previous day and was “not feeling too well” to attend the budget defence session.

Mrs. Madueke had been on the campaign trail of the president, which commenced in Nasarawa state last week, and has since been on a tour of the nation’s sub-region. Even though the deadline for the various committees to submit their input for the 2011 budget to the Senate and House committees on Appropriation was to elapse on Tuesday, members of the Gas committee postponed the budget defence to Wednesday.

Similarly, the Senate Committee on Works had on Thursday last week postponed the budget defence of the Ministry of Works because the minister, Sanusi Dagash, was attending the president’s campaign in Bauchi state.

“You cannot shave a man’s hair in his absence,” Igo Aguma, chairman, House Committee on Gas said on Monday while dismissing the “low level” delegation from the petroleum ministry.

With the budget defence sessions of the petroleum ministry, the works ministry and a couple of others stalled,

the committees will miss the submission deadline. The delay will cascade and impede the passage of the bill at both chambers of the national assembly and finally, the implementation of the budget.

Stay off Campaigns

At the villa, official and informal activities had gone into a lull as all attention shifted outside to the campaign tours. Meanwhile, last week, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which usually lasts at least two hours when there are just a few memos, lasted for only 20 minutes, with one memo discussed.

At the FEC meeting, the president warned ministers not to allow the campaign to get in the way of their jobs. He had advised that they attend the campaign rallies in their states and two or three other states rather than scurrying to join the campaign trail to every state.

Emmanuel Ogala and Elizabeth Archibong