Ebonyi State Governor Martin Elechi yesterday cautioned the House of Representatives against aggravating an already tense polity characterised by insecurity through? its threats of initiating impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan.
Presenting a keynote address during the 2012 Press Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ebonyi State chapter, at Women Development Centre, Abakaliki, Governor Elechi described as contradictory and worrisome the assertion by the House that 2012 national budget had only achieved 30 percent implementation, and thatr for this it would impeach President Jonathan by September if the budget was not implemented 100 percent.
He said that if a budget that was only passed in March and signed into law in April could attain 30 percent in July, it then meant that in three months, or one quarter, the budget recorded 30 per cent implementation instead of 25 per cent.
“I would think that this would rather be a cause for commendation, than condemnation. In the face of the cesspool of corruption in which our nation is enmeshed, I personally believe that it will be a great disservice for the government to embark on a disbursement spree in order to attain high percentage statistical performance of the budget without ensuring that strict checks are applied as required by the Public Procurement Act,” he said.
Governor Elechi maintained that the national psyche had already been seriously assailed by a number of tragedies including air crashes, terrorist onslaughts, tanker explosions, fire disasters and destructive floods, all of which have occasioned much blood spillage.
The state governor advised the media to desist from celebrating the impeachment threat without asking the hard and pertinent questions.