House Committee Rejects Okonjo-Iweala’s Answers To 50 Questions, Plus The Full 50 Questions List

Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, failed to answer many of the questions sent to her by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on the ‘true state’ of Nigeria’s economy, the lawmakers have said. In a review of Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s response to the 50 questions issued to her by the committee, the lawmakers said some of the questions were “either not answered, partially answered, outrightly ignored or completely misunderstood.”
The lawmakers’ response is contained in a letter addressed to the minister, dated January 31, and signed by the Chairman of the Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
The committee also said it observed several lacuna in the minister’s response.
“The Committee further noted glaring missing gaps in the responses, absence of supporting proofs to assertions and lack of relevant documents to back up the presentation as is the practice in any legislative oversight or investigation.
“Many data and statistics provided were inconsistent with subsequent information provided while answering other questions,” the committee said.
 
The 50 questions
The 50 questions were issued to the finance minister on December 19, 2013 by the committee. The questions bordered on the state of Nigeria’s economy.
Though the committee gave her two weeks to respond, the minister sent her response and made it public on January 16. The presentation of the questions to the minister had sparked controversy between her and the House committee on December 19, 2013, when she appeared before the lawmakers.