PDP: Presidency’s appeal to lawmakers to reconvene ‘mere wish’, as Ita Enang, Lawan visit Osinbajo, say ‘Nigeria risks total govt shut down over NASS recess’

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said on Monday that the Presidency’s appeal to federal lawmakers to reconvene from recess was mere wish and attempt to blackmail the National Assembly.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, stated this at a news conference in Abuja.
The presidency on Sunday, appealed to the National Assembly to reconvene saying that urgent matters pending before it may affect the running of Nigeria and matters affecting Nigerians.
The appeal was made by the Senior Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly matters, Senator Ita Enang, at a news conference in Lagos.
The National Assembly, on July 24, adjourned for its annual recess to reconvene on September 25.
Some of the pending urgent issues before the adjournment included the approval of a presidential request for virement of N242 billion in the 2018 Budget for the 2019 elections.
The amount would be spent by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies for preparation and execution of the elections.
Ologbondiyan said that what Enang had done was just a mere wish as he had no power to order or call for the reopening of the parliament, adding that the aide was “just expressing his personal wishes”.
“As a matter of fact, Senator Enang was the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“Will he listen to anybody from outside the chamber to come and dictate to the presiding officers?
“It is unfortunate that people who have experience in legislative practices and procedures, when they get to the executive arm, instead of telling the executives the limit of their powers, they pretend to know it all.
“By so doing, they mislead the executive.
“There are set rules. Section 12 of the Senate Standing Rules puts the opening of the Senate within the purview of President of the Senate and the operational word there is `may’.
“And, that is if the Senate President is convinced to reopen the Senate.
“We must not allow those who have no respect for laws to take charge of our lives, because what they are plotting to do has a huge capacity to create anarchy for the nation.”
“The NASS has only gone for their annual recess and it is within their right to choose when to come back,” he said.
Ologbondiyan added that the attempt at recalling the lawmakers to work was also an effort to subdue the rules and the laws, saying that it was unacceptable.
He also condemned the request by the executive that money meant for projects injected into the 2018 budget should be channeled to fund part of 2019 general elections.
According to him, it is an attempt by the executive to blackmail the national parliament.
“How can the executive predicate funds meant for elections on the proposal for constituencies’ projects?
“How can the presidency sit back and declare that the money meant for 2019 general elections would be based on an amendment of Appropriation Act?
“Why don’t they send a bill for supplementary budget? People like Enang who has spent his life in the NASS has the responsibility to advise the executive on what to do,” he said.
Ologbondiyan also questioned the timing for the request, asking why the executive had to wait until when the NASS was supposed to proceed on annual recess before sending request on elections funds to it.
He said it was merely to create unnecessary controversies, “and that is where we are now.
“Is it in July that they understood that we have election for February, 2019?
“Did they not realise that there is a need for INEC to get sensitive and insensitive materials? Was it in July that they discovered that?
“One thing we know for certain is that whichever game or shenanigans they project, elections will hold in 2019.”
On the trending story that Senate Minority Leader and former Governor of Akwa Ibom was set to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ologbondiyan said that the PDP was yet to be notified.
“The PDP is not aware of the said defection of any of our members in Akwa Ibom State because we have not been notified.”
Ologbondiyan said that the PDP had no issue whatsoever with Akpabio.
“Like I said earlier in a programme, the party’s last discussion with Akpabio is that he informed the party that he was traveling to Germany. That was the last discussion”
On Akpabio’s photograph with Buhari in London trending on the social media, Ologbondiyan said: “May be, he had a technical stop over like the president did the last time.”
Meanwhile, Ita Enang has warned that the country might face total government shut down, if the National Assembly does not reconvene urgently.
Enang and Senator Ahmed Lawan, Senate Majority Leader, gave this indication while addressing State House correspondents shortly after a closed-door meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday in Abuja.
Both men were in the State House to brief the Acting President on the situation in the Senate.
The also expressed the urgent need for the National Assembly to reconvene immediately and pass the virement and supplementary budgets requested by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We are still appealing to the National Assembly to reconvene; you remember that we passed the budget with the understanding that a great amount of the money will be gotten from foreign loans.
“Although it was approved that there would be a loan, the amount that would be gotten was not approved; the Fiscal Responsibility Act requires that the President should specifically state the amount he wants to get from foreign loans and present it before the National Assembly.
“That letter has been presented before the National Assembly and it has to pass that amount before it could be obtained from the foreign financing institutions.
“This is what we are asking and if does not happen, in the next few months, we have a complete government shut down because what we are receiving from the Federation Account as Federal Government share — the capital component — is not enough to sustain even 15 per cent to 20 percent of budget.
“So, there may be a complete government shut down and I know Nigerians will not like it; that is why we are appealing to the National Assembly to reconvene.’’
Enang said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had a clear majority in the Senate as it now had in its fold Akpabio, the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Senate and other defecting Senators.
He said that Akpabio would be formally received in APC at a ceremony that would be held in Akwa Ibom on August 8.
On his part, Lawan said that that the capital aspect of 2019 budget would be largely funded by foreign facilities/loans.
He said that the National Assembly needed to pass the virement and supplementary budgets alongside other important and essential requests, especially that of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other security agencies.
“We need to reconvene immediately to look into these issues.
“Our government is almost stalled and I believe that if we pass the supplementary budget and virement request of Mr President, it will enable our government to provide the various infrastructure that we have planned to provide for Nigerians.
“To do otherwise will be sabotage to this administration; will be sabotage to democracy itself because if we cannot provide the funds for INEC to plan the 2019 elections, what do we call ourselves?
“Take the case of INEC for example, it can pick some items from the shelves but there are so many important items that INEC will place order that will take two to three months.
“So, it is very imperative that we do the needful; we should reconvene the National Assembly immediately; as legislators and representatives of Nigeria, we do what is best in national interest.’’
He urged senators to quickly reconvene and pass the requests as anything contrary would mean fighting the masses.
Lawan said that there were conflicting reports from different caucuses of the Senate but that APC remained the majority as it had 53 senators in its caucus.
He noted that the list of senators in APC caucus had been made public and challenged the PDP to publish the names of senators in the PDP Senate caucus.
The Senate adjourned sittings on July 24 to reconvene on September 25.