Reps Yet To Receive Okonjo-Iweala’s Response To 50 Questions On The Economy

As the two-week period given the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to respond to 50 questions on the state of the economy elapses, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance is yet to receive the response of the minister.

It would be recalled that the committee led by Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano), had, after a meeting with the minister on 19th December, 2013 given a list of 50 questions related to the state of the nation’s economy to the minister with a time-line of two weeks to respond.

The meeting also generated controversy after the lawmakers walked out Okonjo-Iweala when she sought to be excused from the meeting early because she was sick but later changed her mind, insisting that she was fit to answer the 50 questions after she had been granted her request.

Jibrin could, however, not be reached as at the time of filing this report. Nevertheless, LEADERSHIP investigations revealed that the committee has not received the response of the finance minister.

Highlights of the questions include:

1.     What should you consider as the major economic achievements of this government in the 2013 fiscal year and why? In your explanation, we will need facts and figures in demonstrating such achievements.

2.     You have been credited with many announcements regarding Nigeria’s economy as one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. If the economy is one of the fastest growing economies, what is exactly growing the economy? What role does government play in the said economic growth, especially given that as high as 80 per cent of the country’s total annual budget spending still goes into recurrent expenditure?