Fashola’s Comments On 2017 Budget ‘Calculated Mischief’ – Reps

The House of Representatives has criticised the Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), for his comments on the input of the National Assembly on the 2017 budget.
Mr Fashola had on Thursday, during an interactive session with editors, decried what he said was the reduction of allocation for projects such as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge by the National Assembly.

He also lamented the insertion of projects such as primary healthcare centres and boreholes in the budget after the budget defence.

“If after we have defended the budget and we had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation?’’ he was quoted as saying.

But the House of Representatives, in a statement by the Chairman of its Committee On Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, said minister’s comments were part of “the pattern adopted by elements in the executive arm of government to delegitimise the 2017 Appropriation Act”, which was signed into law by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

National Assembly Won’t Be A Rubber Stamp, Lawmakers Reply Osinbajo

Insisting that the Minister’s comments contained “fundamental inaccuracies”, the House of Reps said they were part of “the obvious attempt to blackmail the National Assembly, paint it as an irresponsible institution not concerned with the welfare of the people, and set the Executive and Legislature on an unnecessary collision course on matters of power rather than issues that benefit the Nigerian people”.

The House of Reps also explained the reasons behind its decisions with regard to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge.

The statement read in part, “To the specific issues raised, 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. An 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?

“On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 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! 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!”