The House of Representatives on Saturday attacked the with Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola over his utterances on the recently signed 2017 Appropriation Act.
The House noted that the minister’s statement was capable of setting the Legislature against the Executive and also cause chaos in the already tensed atmosphere.
The lawmaker, however, warned the minister to guard his utterances and stop painting the Parliament in a bad light over the 2017 budget.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the lower chamber is reacting after the Minister raised the alarm over the insertion of projects outside the purview of his ministry in the 2017 Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.
The House in a statement issued by the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon Abdulrazak Namdas disclosed that “we need to restate that the National Assembly leadership entered into certain understandings with the Executive arm on the 2017 Budget in good faith. It is a clear breach of these understandings for the Executive to make public statements calculated to undermine and distort them”.
According to him, “Nigerians deserve a total concentration of all government officials, arms of government and MDA’s to grow the economy as we exit the recession. We in the House of Representatives are so passionately committed”.
The House spokesman while clarifying some of the allegation raised by the minister, “Mr Fashola claimed that the National Assembly included many projects that were not agreed on during the Budget defence before the Committees; that the Budget Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced from N31 billion to N10 billion; that 2nd Niger Bridge budget was reduced from N15b to N10bn(actually N12bn to N7bn); that about N3 billion or so was removed from Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Road; that the Budget for Mambila Power Project was also cut”.
He, however, maintained that “it is very misleading and calculated mischief to simply say that N5 billion was taken
from the Budget for 2nd Niger Bridge. The truth is that in the 2016 Budget, N12 billion was appropriated for the 2nd Niger Bridge and not a Kobo was spent by the Ministry. Not a Kobo. The money was returned. The Ministry could not provide the Committees of the National Assembly with evidence of an agreement on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) or a contract for the 2nd Niger Bridge.
“The National Assembly, in its wisdom decided to fund other projects from the South East leaving N7 billion for the 2nd Niger Bridge that may yet be unspent. The projects include – N2.5 billion extra for Enugu/Onitsha Road, N1 billion more for 9th Mile/Nsukka/Makurdi Road; additional N500m for Oturkpa- Makurdi to take care of evacuation of agricultural produce up to Maiduguri; N1 billion more for Ikot Ekpene-Aba-Owerri Road etc. These are strategic Roads in the South-East and North Central parts of Nigeria that had inadequate allocations.
“The National Assembly had to intervene to fund some other critical roads that were totally neglected in the Executive Budget proposal. Example is the Abuja- Kaduna – Zaria – Kano Road that had Zero allocation from the President’s proposal and no contract even in spite of due process certification. N5 billion was provided in the 2016 Budget. It was not utilised. In 2017 Budget, the National Assembly again provided N3 billion for this very critical road that connects many states and where incidents of kidnapping are rife because of bad roads, as we believe that all parts of Nigeria deserve attention or would the Minister also claim that this road has no design?”, the statement posited.
On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Hon Namdas claimed that “leadership meetings of both the Executive and Legislature were held where it was clarified that alternative funding exists for the Road through PPP arrangement and the concessionaires had enough money to fund the project. That informed the decision to move some funds to other areas of need and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing is fully aware of this but chose to ignore it. Why spend government money if there is a clear existing funding framework in place and so many ongoing road projects are unfunded?
“On the Mambila Power Project, the Minister proposed a whopping N17 Billion for only Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). N17 Billion Naira! The National Assembly felt that N17 Billion for EIA was misplaced and patently unjustifiable! The Minister himself even wrote to the National Assembly to move some funds from this sub-heads to others!
“On a general note, we need to remind the Honourable Minister that the Budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is NOT his PERSONAL BUDGET; it is part of the Budget of the Federation. The National Assembly and others are also stakeholders in this country, imbued with patriotism to fix Nigeria’s problems. There are certain matters which the National Assembly Committees discover during oversight activities that are corrected during the budget process. There are so many omissions which the National Assembly makes effort to correct on behalf of Nigerians. Even the Ministries also disown allocations contained in their budgets! Should the National Assembly keep quiet and moot and allow infractions patently exposed in the Executive proposals?
“We think that the Constitution did not design the National Assembly as a “rubber stamp” as eloquently stated by His Excellency Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker, House of Representatives.
“Also contained in the budget of the FMWP&H is an omnibus allocation of N20 Billion. The details were not provided by the Minister. The National Assembly would be irresponsible to appropriate funds that are not tied to specific projects. Mr Fashola pushed hard to have the lump sum of N20 billion approved for him without specifying which project it will be spent on. He wanted the details to be left only to him to decide at his discretion. The National Assembly refused to do this and incurred the wrath of the almighty Minister.
“He claimed that the National Assembly cannot increase the 2017 Budget. He conveniently forgot that the MTEF had a $2 increase per Barrel that was not applied or part of the 2017 Appropriation Bill proposed by Mr President. How was this to be applied? If applied would that not amount to an increase? Did the Executive not propose new projects and increases in the budget figures of about N41.7 Billion after Mr President presented the Budget?
“It is true that Fashola is a SAN, an eminent lawyer and former Governor, but does that warrant his repeated insults hauled at the National Assembly? He claims that certain matters are State or even Local Government matters. He mentions Primary Health Care as an example. If one may ask why has he not led the effort to abolish the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, a federal government agency? As a Senior Lawyer, he should be aware of what is called CONCURENT LIST, and the provisions of S.4(4)(a) and S.4(5) of the Constitution.
“Mr Fashola should be told that his Ministry includes Housing and Urban Development that traditionally takes care of other small projects like water in Housing Estates and so on and should not be surprised if he sees such projects in his Ministry. Some of the projects are designed in furtherance of meeting the SDG goals. It is certainly disingenuous for him to pretend that some urban development projects found in his Ministry’s Budget were meant for Roads and Power!
“We need to remind Mr Fashola that the National Assembly is a national institution made up of members from all geo-political zones, they represent all tendencies, interests and ethnic nationalities. It has a responsibility also to ensure balance in the distribution of Road Projects and other developmental facilities. It cannot watch our national patrimony unfairly skewed to one region or a few regions to the detriment of other states and geo-political zones. The proposal from Mr. President on the 2017 Budget of the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing did not pass this test! This partly informed the intervention of National Assembly so that every region can be carried along in project allocation”, the statement stated.