Goodluck Jonathan is blamed for poor execution of the budget, midway into the financial year.

The ongoing face-off between the Nigerian Presidency and House of Representatives (the lower Chamber of Parliament) gathered more storm on Monday July 23 with the House vowing not to withdraw its threat to begin impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan should he fail to improve on his performance on budget implementation by September.

The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria cited the House of Representatives Spokesman, Hon. Zakari Mohammed as declaring in a statement in the capital, Abuja that none of its members would bow to any pressure to rescind its decision, adding that the only interest of the House was to ensure that life was made better for ordinary Nigerians.

He pointed out that all revenue generating agencies had already surpassed their six-monthly targets by June, yet this was not reflected in the implementation of the budget by the Federal Government. He warned that if the trend was not arrested, it could worsen the already fragile state of the nation, hence the need for our quick intervention.

The House had earlier on Thursday July 19 passed a motion, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to direct Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to release funds meant for the execution of capital projects to ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs. The move was initiated by members of the ruling PDP party that enjoys a commanding majority in both Chambers of the National Assembly.

Thisday newspaper reported that there was uproar in the House as lawmakers reviewed the implementation of the budget that the National Assembly passed on March 15 with less than 30 per cent execution rate as at June. It was gathered that of the 1.5 trillion Naira (about FCFA 5,066 billion) earmarked for capital expenditure, the Federal Ministry of Finance had released only 404 billion Naira (about FCFA 1,365 billion) by June, Vanguard newspaper said.