Vice President Namadi Sambo has been enjoined to be alive to his constitutional responsibilities by convening in earnest, the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in the interest of the country.
The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Adebunmi Adetumbi Thursday said the refusal of the Vice President to convene NEC meeting regularly is a breach of the constitution and thus, amount to dereliction of duty.
The Vice President statutorily chairs the NEC which ought to hold monthly and comprises of the 36 state governors, FCT Minister, Ministers of Finance, National Planning and the Central Bank Governor.
But, for about five months now, the governors have not been invited for the meeting, fuelling speculation that Sambo is playing politics with the nation’s economy.
Adetumbi at a media briefing in Abuja posited that if the Vice President had been convening the NEC meeting as at when due, possibly the non-remittance of oil revenue by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would have been detected.
“The 3rd schedule, part 1, section H(18) of the constitution states inter-alia, that the Vice President shall have powers to advise the president concerning the economic affairs of the nation in particular, and join in proffering measures necessary for the economic planning efforts of the various governments of the Nation through regular convening of the National Economic council meetings between federal and state governments along with relevant government agencies critical to the smooth running of the Nation’s economy.
He said, “The non- convening of these meetings, constitutes a breach of the constitution and a dereliction of duty by the Vice President.
“It is on record that this is the 5th consecutive time that this meeting would be called and abruptly cancelled just a few days or few hours before the appointed time”.
“The absence of inclusive discussion on the economic affairs of the nation that involves federal and state government is a breach of process and does not encourage participatory economic governance that is required in a federation like ours.
“For the economy to outgrow its present despondent state, regular economic interface between federal and state government, the economic council meeting needs to be reinstated and held regularly at least quarterly”
According to the Senator, NEC which serves as platform for deliberating on economic affairs that affect both the state and federal governments like federation account management, national budget, setting up of benchmark and even the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) should be resuscitated.
“As it were presently, the voices of states have been silenced in the determination of economic policies and decision making. This omission on the part of the vice President makes the states to be at the mercy of the federal government and makes them to be mere takers in a patrimony that belongs to all,” Adetumbi said.
He also said, “The purpose of this briefing is simply to call the attention of the public to this anomaly and to also call on the Vice President to be more alive to his responsibilities and less discretionary in a constitutional duty that is binding on his office”.
