Grace Cofie
The House of Representatives has expressed its displeasure over the absence of some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria at the 2022 budget defence.
This rule was made by the deputy speaker of the house, Ahmed Wase, during the plenary session on Wednesday, following a motion made by Fatau Mohammed, All Progressive Congress (APC) lawmaker from Kastina State.
While moving his motion, Mohammed said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Securuty Printing and Minting Company, and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) did not appear before the house committee.
The lawmaker said it is illegal for the agencies not to appear and defend their budget.
Citing orders the house standing orders, he said, “Order 20, rule 18 (1) stipulates that “There shall be a Committee to be known as Committee on Banking and Currency consisting of not more than 40 members constituted at the commencement of the life of the House” and the committee’s jurisdiction shall cover the oversight of CBN and AMCON.”
According to the lawmaker, the rule empowers the committee to perform oversight functions on the agencies.
“It will interest the house to know that none of the above agencies have had oversight in the past two years, and they have failed to make their 2022 budget available to the committee. How long shall we allow these illegalities to continue?” he said.
Contributing to the motion, Toby Okechukwu, deputy minority leader of the house, added that, “This is a breach of the law of which this house should make a finding and place it properly the culpability of these agencies. It would be proper for this to come in a way of a motion for an investigation.”
Ruling on the matter, Wase said that the leadership of the green chamber would interface with the committee to resolve the issue.
