Hope of an end to the friction between President Goodluck Jonathan and the House of Representatives brightened on Friday with the decision of the President to bow to some of the demands made by the lower legislative chamber.
Feelers from the two meetings the President has held with the Speaker of the House of Reps, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, in the past one week revealed that the President decided to yield some grounds to the lawmakers because of what a Presidency source called his “deep concern for the nation’s political stability.”
The lawmakers had been at daggers drawn with the President over what they termed an uninspiring implementation of the 2012 budget and the contempt of the executive for resolutions and bills passed by them.
The friction got to a head last week when they gave the executive up till the end of September to implement the budget 100 per cent, failing which they would launch impeachment proceedings against the President.
The implementation of the budget is now expected to be fast-tracked while the President is also said to have demanded a fresh, comprehensive report from the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the controversial recall of the D.G. of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh.
"Mr. President believes that while he is addressing insecurity in the country, his administration should not give room for political instability... I can tell you that he will address some of the issues tabled by the House. Some of the bills awaiting assent may be signed next week, although he will be taking them one by one on merit.
Any of the bills which requires fine-tuning may be returned to the National Assembly after mutual consultations.
“The President has also taken steps to pacify the Senate which is also aggrieved by non-implementation of some resolutions, especially the Report of its Committee on Privatization.
There may be action on reports from the National Assembly on BPE, SEC and Pension scam.
“If not for the maturity of the Senate President, David Mark, the relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly would have been worse," a Presidency source revealed.
