The Nigerian Senate has disclosed that it had delegated its Chairman
Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje to hold a media briefing
to clarify concerns raised by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 2018 Budget.
The red chamber of the National Assembly assured that Goje will make revelations about contentious areas.
Chairman, Committee on Media and Publicity, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi, in a
statement, confirmed that the Senate was in agreement with the
statement issued by the House of Representatives, in response to the issues raised by Buhari on the budget.
He said, “The leadership of both chambers have directed the chairmen
of our committees on appropriations to provide item by item, detailed
explanations on all points raised by the President for the benefit of
members of the public.
“They will therefore address a press conference on Friday, June 22nd, 2018.
“It should however be noted that the action of the National Assembly
while working on the budget was informed by the provision of the
Constitution on the need for inclusion, balance and the fact that the
first responsibility of government is the security and welfare of all
citizens,” he said.
President Buhari had in his speech said, “the logic behind the
Constitutional direction that budgets should be proposed by the
Executive is that, it is the Executive that knows and defines its
policies and projects.
“Unfortunately, that has not been given much regard in what has been
sent to me. The National Assembly made cuts amounting to 347 billion
Naira in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for
consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to
578 billion Naira.
“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.
“Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not
been properly conceptualized, designed and costed and will therefore be
difficult to execute.
”Such examples of projects from which cuts were made are as follows:
The provisions for some nationally/regionally strategic infrastructure
projects such as Counter-part funding for the Mambilla Power Plant,
Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo
Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut
by an aggregate of 11.5 billion Naira.”
“Similarly, provisions for some ongoing critical infrastructure
projects in the FCT, Abuja especially major arterial roads and the mass
transit rail project, were cut by a total of 7.5 billion Naira.
“The provision for Rehabilitation and Additional Security Measures
for the United Nations Building by the FCT, Abuja was cut by 3.9 billion
Naira from 4 billion Naira to 100 million Naira.
“The above will make it impossible for the Federal Government of
Nigeria to fulfill its commitment to the United Nations on this project.
“The provisions for various Strategic Interventions in the health
sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions,
transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system,
provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment,
establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis
consumables were cut by an aggregate amount of 7.45 billion Naira.
“The provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools
across the country were cut by 3 billion Naira at a time when securing
our students against acts of terrorism ought to be a major concern of
government.
“The provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme was cut by 8.7 billion Naira.
“At a time when we are working with Labour to address
compensation-related issues, a total of 5 billion Naira was cut from the
provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage
Adjustment.”