2013 budget: PDP wades into NASS/Presidency rift

[MrVan]

BY Henry Umoru

ABUJA—WORRIED by the emerging rift between the National Assembly and the Presidency over the 2013 budget, following different positions on the oil price benchmark, the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, disclosed, Tuesday, that it has waded into the matter.

Fielding questions from journalists in Abuja, PDP National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, noted that the party controls the majority at the National Assembly and it has not lost control of its members, adding that the bickering between the two arms of government will be resolved through dialogue.

He said: "It is an open secret, but that is our own internal affairs and we are going about resolving the issue through."

It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan's pegging of $75 per barrel as benchmark for the sale of crude oil in the 2013 budget was rejected by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Benchmark

While the Senate approved $78 per barrel, the House of Representatives pegged the oil benchmark at $80 per barrel.

This has since created some tensions between members of the National Assembly and the Presidency, especially with comments from Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Political Matters and Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, which the lawmakers described as unpalatable.

On zoning

Oyinlola also told journalists that PDP will not throw away zoning system. He said the system had endeared Nigerians to the party, even as he explained that when medicine is good for you, you don't throw it away. "We will continue with zoning," he added.

Ondo guber

He also spoke on the just-concluded Ondo State gubernatorial election, where PDP was defeated by Labour Party, LP.

Oyinlola, who noted that some lessons have been learnt, disclosed that as a party, it would do an appraisal on where on what happened, where it got it wrong and continue to work hard enough to convince the people of Ondo State, or any other state in which it would contest an election, that it can always do better.

Vanguard Nigeria

[Folami David]

The rejections by the senate and house of rep is welcomed by me.That has to happen sometimes

[Tina lawrence]

i did not expect any rift from dis

[Tina lawrence]

i want to know how all this will pan out