I Was Misquoted- Okonjo-Iweala Denies Attempt To Pitch Lawmakers Against Jonathan

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy,
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday denied statements credited to her on
the 2013 budget crisis, saying she has no intention to pitch the
National Assembly against either President Goodluck Jonathan or the
executive arm of government.
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The embattled minister drew the anger of the two Chambers of the
National Assembly on Tuesday following reports that she had
warned,while appearing on an Abuja-based radio programme on Monday,
that the country would shutdown if the impasse on the 2013 budget was
not resolved.
Ms. Okonjo-Iweala, however, told StateHouse correspondents on
Wednesday in Abuja that at no time during the radio programme did she
say that the government or country was going to shutdown if the
contentious issues in the budget were not resolved.
She said she drew attention to the challenges the country's economy
was facing and pointed out that these are short term problems that are
being addressed; insisting that that does not in any way imply that
the economy or the country was going to shutdown.
"At no point in time did I say that the government or the country is
going to shut down," the minister said. "The economy is strong; we are
robust; we have our short-term challenges. As youknow, we are dealing
with reduced revenue due to the issue of oil theft, which Mr.
President is focusing on and is solving."
The government, she said, has already constituted a committee of
governors, with the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, as Chairman, to try
and deal with the issue of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta,
pointing out that government is confident that the problem would soon
be resolved, to bring down the incidence of pipeline vandalism in the
region.
"What I did say was that we will not be able to pay salaries, and that
is a very different situation we are talking about. So this was a
misleading headline from a newspaper and we should not spend the time
of national debate on non-issues. At no time did I say the country is
going to shutdown. I said we will not be able to pay salaries and that
remains the fact; that is factual," she said.On the allegation by
Senators that she was trying to pitch them against President Goodluck
Jonathan, Ms. Okonjo-Iweala said the executive has agood working
relationship with the legislative arm of government, adding that the
two arms of government would at all times work in a collegial manner
to ensure that problems over the 2013 budget are resolved.
"It is absolutely untrue; we are not pitching anyone against anyone.
We have been working with Senators and House of Reps members in a very
collegial manner. We are working withthem. This headline was put out
mischievously. That was not the headline," she said.
During the controversial interview the minister had said: "The country
has been running from January up until now, and we have been
implementingthe budget that was passed. But, we have got to a point
where some amendments have to be made, and this is why Mr. President
sent this amendment to the National Assembly.
"We can continue for a little while longer, but at some point, we need
theamendment to pass, because come September/October we may not be
able to pay salaries, because we wouldneed to restore about N32
billion for salaries that were moved around.
The Senate and the House of Representatives, which considered
thestatement as calculated to blackmail the lawmakers and incite
Nigerians against them, showed their anger by warning the minister to
desist from statements capable of putting the legislature and
executive on a collision course.