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Tag: NASS

  • Atiku deplores persecution of NASS leadership

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has deplored the siege on the homes of the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, early Tuesday morning.

    Describing the development as troubling and unsettling, Atiku said no democratic nation ought to treat the leadership of its parliament like common criminals in the course of a political disagreement.

    In a statement issued by his media office, the ex- Vice President recalled that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was the beneficiary of defection by Saraki and others in 2013 when they defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the party.

    The statement said: “I also remind them that their electoral victory, which they have so badly mismanaged today, would not have been possible without the Senate President.

    “Power is transient and is also a trust that should only be used for the good and advancement of the people one leads and not for the persecution of real and imagined political opponents.

    “I therefore call for the lifting of the sieges on the persons and homes of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, by security forces.

    “I remind President Muhammadu Buhari of his public words of solidarity to Senator Saraki after his ordeal of malicious prosecution, which thankfully was brought to a halt by the Supreme Court and I urge him to live up to those words today and always.”

  • CSOs shutdown NASS over misappropriation of cattle ranch fund, want Jonathan arrested

    Coalition of Civil Society Organisation for Peace and Good Governance, on Tuesday stormed the national assembly in Abuja in protest of alleged misappropriation of fund approved for the establishment of cattle ranch in the country.

    The protesters, who besieged the national assembly complex in their numbers, admitted that the death toll that has arisen as a result of the herdsmen and farmers conflict in Nigeria has reached an alarming stage, stressing that if urgent and proactive measures are not taken, it has a potential to threaten the very foundation of the country our forefathers laboured to put in place.

    The protesters, who were seen displaying placard, bearing various inscription, noted that some individuals that do not have the interest of this great country at heart have continued to engage in acts inimical to our progress as a nation.

    Speaking on behalf of the coalition during the protest, Comrade Jonathan Ogwuche, National President/Convener lamented the alleged embezzlement of the 100 billion naira cattle ranch fund released by the administration of former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2014, for the establishment of mini ranches nationwide to curb the frequent clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

    According to him, the National Economic Council approved the release of the money in 2014 for states to build “mini” ranches after clashes between herdsmen and farmers escalated but the money developed wings and flew.

    He called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for under whose watch this heist was perpetrated

    Ogwuche said, “Even as we are aware that the money was released without the approval of the National Assembly, there was no evidence of how it was utilized; there has not been any ranch constructed anywhere in the country to account for the expenditure of the money.

    “It is also expedient to mention that this act of national sabotage has left the country with human and material casualties from herdsmen and farmers conflict.

    “We are appalled by this act of rascality aimed at national disintegration by elements and principal political actors of the previous Peoples Democratic Party-led government in Nigeria.

    “With blood flowing freely in Nigeria as a result of this crime against humanity, these political actors are still roaming the streets freely and flaunting their ill-gotten wealth.

    “It is a clear four years after the release of the funds, yet nothing has been done or heard on the case, yet innocent Nigerians are dying on almost a daily basis.

    “As a background, a committee set up by the Federal Government in 2014 on Grazing Reserves under the Chairmanship of the former Governor of Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswan which identified issues causing the conflicts between herdsmen and farmers to include struggle for land and water and uncontrolled influx of nomadic herdsmen, and thus noted that grazing reserves and cattle routes already gazetted had been encroached upon, and such routes should be recovered and improved upon, taking into consideration present day realities.

    “As a result, the Committee recommended the release of N100 billion through the Central Bank of Nigeria as seed funding to all the States for the construction of ranches.

    “Despite the release of the money, there has not been any ranch constructed anywhere in the country to account for the expenditure of the money, and as a result, the conflicts they were intended to cure have exacerbated.

    “Having stated the above, it becomes more curious as to why there has been an unholy silence from the National Assembly, despite a resolution to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the disbursement and utilization of the N100 billion released for the construction of mini ranches across the country over a year ago.

    “The House of Representatives has yet to investigate the N100bn disbursed to some states by the Central Bank of Nigeria to build cattle ranches, one year after it passed a resolution on the matter. The House had yet to constitute an ad hoc committee to start the investigation.

    “At this point, we are constrained to believe that monies must have exchanged hands in a bid to kill the matter completely despite the innocent lives that are lost on a daily basis in Nigeria.

    “ It also appears that some elements within the National Assembly might have conspired with those behind the dastardly act of embezzling the 100 billion naira to kill the probe.

    “We are therefore urging the National Assembly not only to investigate the matter but to also live up to the expectations of the people they are representing in their various constituencies to ensure that all of those that were part of the embezzlement of the funds are brought to book.

    “We also call for the immediate arrest and prosecution of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for under whose watch this heist was perpetrated, to establishing whether or not he was a part of the fraud.”

  • Buhari wants NASS to approve N228.9bn for 2019 elections, others

    President Muhammadu Buhari has requested the National Assembly to approve the sum of N228,854,008,215 from the 2018 budget to fund the 2019 general election and other critical projects in the country.

    Buhari specifically told NASS to approve the N228.9 billion from N578, 319, 951.904 billion total projects sum inserted in the budget.

    This is contained in a presidential memo dated July 11, 2018 read by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday.

    If approved, the request titled: “Request for virement and supplementary 2018 budget” would cut deep into the controversial constituency projects funding for 2018.

    The President said the aggregate cost of the 2019 elections is N242, 445,322,600.00

    From the funds, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to receive N189.207 billion while the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) will get N4.2 billion.

    The Department of State Services (DSS) will receive N12.213 billion while the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) will get N3.573 billion.

    The Nigeria Police Force is expected to get N30.541 billion while Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) will receive N2.628 billion.

    The letter reads in part: “As you are aware, the 2019 general election is scheduled to be conducted early in 2019. To ensure that adequate arrangements are made for free and fair elections, it has become necessary to appropriate funds to enable the relevant agencies to commence preparations.

    “INEC and security agencies have accordingly recently submitted their requests. These have been subjected to the usual budget evaluation. The aggregate cost of the elections is estimated at N242, 445,322,600.”

     

     

     

  • 2018 Budget adjustments: Protesters block NASS entrance

    A group identified as Citizens Actions to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) on Tuesday thronged the entrance of the National Assembly ( NASS ) Complex protesting the adjustments made in the 2018 Appropriation Act by the Legislature.

    The protesters arrived in about 11 luxurious busses, popularly known as “El-rufai bus”, playing music and chanting songs, calling for the resignation of the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki.

    They carried placards which read: “Constituency projects is now corruption, it must stop”; “Nigerians are not represented in the sharing of the loot via constituency projects”; and “National Assembly not for armed runners,” among others.

    The security personnel in a bid to maintain law and order, shut the main gate to the complex, preventing the protesters from entering the premises while the group tried to force their way in.

    As a result, visitors and workers who were to resume their daily duties were also prevented from entering, forcing them to use alternative routes.

    The convener of the group, Mr Ibrahim Wala, said that the NASS no longer represents the people of Nigeria.

    He said that the many adjustments and introductions of several projects in to the 2018 Appropriation Act by the legislature necessitated the protest.

    Wala said that constituency projects should be implemented in all constituencies represented by each member of the NASS.

    He alleged that the members connived with contractors to collect the money and do not execute the projects that would have benefited citizens.

    Read Also: NASS leadership visits Buhari over Plateau killings

    According to him, since 2004 to date, constituency projects have been appropriated for but nothing has changed.

    “The worst of it is what we are seeing in the 2018 budget, these people inserted thousands of interns.

    “We are here representing the entire citizens of this country; the crowd you see here represents the voices of Nigerians.

    “Nigerians want a situation whereby when we vote individuals into office they should work with the people and not represent their own interests,” he said.

    He urged the security personnel at the gate not to deprive the people of their right to access the premises in peaceful protest.

    According to Wala, the group is made up of young women and men that are concerned with the cause of the nation.

    The News Agency of Nigeria  reports that no member of the NASS was available to address the protesters who had been denied access into the premises.

    Nan also reports that the NASS resumed on Tuesday, July 3, after a three-week recess.

  • NASS will release details of N139.5b budget – Saraki

    Details of the National Assembly’s N139.5 billion allocations in the 2018 national budget will not be kept secret from the public, Senate President, Senator Olusola Saraki has pledged.

    However, this will only be done after the National Assembly resumes from recess and receives details from officials of the NASS management.

    Responding to enquiries from The Nation, Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the Senate President, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu said  the Senate President is keen on  releasing  details of this year’s NASS budget, stressing that the move would be a further confirmation of  his  pledge to ensure a ‘new order’.

    “It did not take anybody’s prompting for the 2017 details to be released and that was the first to be done in a decade,” Olaniyonu said.

    The NASS will resume from their short recess on Tuesday.

    He added: “The bureaucracy that is working on the details will submit it for final approval before it is released.

    “The release of details of 2017 NASS budget was not happenstance; it was a deliberate effort to create a new order and sustain it.

    “So, if you care to wait, the details will be released in due course and not because anybody asked for it.”

    Until last year when broad aspects of its 2017 allocation were made public, the legislative arm’s multi-billion annual budgetary allocations had always been shrouded in secret.

    The secrecy surrounding its budget has always given rise to speculations and allegations of waste.

    However, in spite of several federal legislators’ reservations last year, Senate President released a broad outline of NASS’ budgetary allocations.

  • NASS greed and self-centeredness

    Even as nascent inheritors of power, Nigerians never had faith in the educated elite that finally emerged as our new governing class. Given a choice between them, the traditional rulers and the departing colonial masters, Nigerians according to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, would have chosen in a reverse order. Their main affliction according to him was greed. About 70 years after that observation by a visionary leader who confessed taking pains to study Nigerian problems and proffered solutions while his greedy political adversaries caroused all night through, not much has changed. Greed was behind the governing political class’ political suicide in the first republic (1960-1966). It was responsible for the collapse of the second republic (1979-1984). With ill-implemented privatization and monetization policies, massive looting of the nation’s resources, budget padding and award of humongous indefensible salaries to themselves, greed is the only thing that so far defines the current fourth republic (1999-2018). Greed, more than any other advertised personal inadequacies of President Buhari, is behind the current war against his administration especially by the National Assembly and others that have illegally cornered more than their own proportionate share of our national resources.

    Sadly, unlike Col. Dangiwa Umar (rtd.) who recently called our attention to the greed and self-help tactics that have become the mainstay of the National Assembly, many of our  men of conscience seem to have accepted  heinous crimes such as treasury looting, opportunism, self-help tactics and massive corruption  by leading members of the current national assembly as ‘real politik’. Col. Umar not too long ago openly declared that NASS was not only driven by greed, they are “on a mission to crash the federal government’s war against corruption using the power of ‘oversight’ as cover.”

    He cited as proof some unpatriotic activities of some senators including the one whose company imported 1,200 metric tons of rice in 30, 40-foot containers, fraudulently declared as yeast to evade payment of appropriate duties. He also alleged the same powerful senator secured “a contract to dredge the Calabar Channel” which the Bureau of Public Procurement has condemned as violating all due processes”. The fact that there was no evidence the contract was ever executed was not sufficient disincentive for the senator to “demand and get a whopping $12.5million upfront payment from the NPA or to ask for a purported balance of $22million”

    If there was any doubt that NASS was driven by nothing but greed, the recent book, titled “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines’ released by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance under the Jonathan administration which revealed the arm-twisting that characterised budget passage by NASS during the David Mark/Ekweremadu 7th senate settled that.  According to her, the National Assembly allegedly coerced the Jonathan administration to part with an additional N17 billion even after cornering a disproportionate share of the 2015 budget for their own use before passing it.

    And from President Buhari’s lamentation about the unpatriotic actions of the National Assembly during the signing of the 2018 budget into law last week, it is now easy for people to see that the civil war within his ruling APC was driven by greed. And what are the facts?

    First, after the National Assembly had held on to the 2018 budget for about five months, the president publicly avowed not to lobby (a euphemism for bribing) the National Assembly.  But with total disdain for the president and disregard for public opinion, what was returned to the president after six months was a new budget fashioned in their own image. In their new budget, the lawmakers without restraint increased the oil benchmark for lawmakers’ interest; raised their own expenditure from N125billion to N139.5 billion; added N170billion to the N100 billion government earlier budgeted for their controversial constituency projects and then went on to remove a number of government projects amounting to N347billion to accommodate 6,403 of their own new projects at a cost of N578billion.

    Some of the projects sacrificed  to accommodate  provision of street lights, bore hole and ‘Beke Napep’  in their constituencies include the all-important Lagos – Ibadan Expressway, the East-West, Enugu Airport, Itakpe – Ajaokuta roads, mass transit and major arterial road in the FCT and the Maritime University in the Niger Delta area.  For Femi Adesina, the government spokesman, these distortions and “alterations (by the lawmakers) demonstrated greediness and self-centeredness”.

    It is not only government that is fuming over NASS’ latest demonstration of greed. Other Nigerians including even some members of the National Assembly seem to have become incensed by NASS insensitivity.

    For instance Enyinnaya Abaribe, who is also chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, alleged N30 billion was smuggled into the power budget without his committee’s knowledge. SERAP has also said: “Cutting funding for essential public services, such as health, education and security, constitutes a serious human rights violation and potentially rises to the level of crimes against humanity against the Nigerian people.”

    The President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Eric Omare described NASS action as “insensitive and retrogressive to the development of the country. It is utter selfishness for the National Assembly to reduce funds allocated to key developmental initiatives and increase its budget”. For Femi Okurounmu, a former senator, ‘budget padding and or introducing a lot of extra-legal amount just to meet all those illegal allowances that they are getting is fraudulent”.

    If one expects a NASS that intimidated customs’ Comptroller General for refusing the senate’s dubious alibi that it was ‘the clearing agent and not the senator who imported impounded rice that called it ‘yeast’ instead of ‘rice’ and exonerated the senate president over the impounded SUV bullet proof new addition to his fleet, cleared with forged papers, blaming everything on the importer, to be remorseful, one will be expecting from this NASS what it lacks –honour.

    NASS is going to justify their latest demonstration of greed even if it means holding on to a straw. At a joint press conference addressed by spokespersons of the Senate, Aliu Sabi Abdullahi and his House of Representatives colleague, Abdul Razak Namdas, they claimed usurpation of the role of the executive in a constitutional democracy was done to ensure the promotion of the principles of federal character as contained in Section 14, subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which states that “the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria…”

    But this is a provision that has been operated more in breach in the last 18 years and especially under the Buhari’s APC government with every geographical zone including the north that has accused the President of nepotism for ceding key appointments to his cousins in his Daura village as if Daura makes up the north, complaining of marginalization.  There is no evidence that these self-serving lawmakers have done anything to address the fears of those calling for convocation of a national conference and the restructuring of the country. That the federal character clause is being whimsically applied to justify the greed of the assembly members who as members of the ruling party are expected to join hands with the president to address our crisis of nation-building only confirm the fears expressed by Nigerians that the lawmakers are in Abuja to serve none but themselves.

     

  • Southsouth stakeholders berate NASS over budget cuts

    Some stakeholders in the Southsouth have deplored the decision of the National Assembly to slash appropriations for various projects in the zone by the federal government.

    Leaders of  Thought  from the axis  said in Warri that the legislature was wrong in taking actions aimed at denying the geo-political zone its fair share of projects allocation.

    Chairman OML 30 Community Development Board, an organisation manning the affairs of some 111 oil producing communities in Delta State, Mr. Morris Idiovwa, expressed disappointment at the conduct of the federal  lawmakers while the convener of the Southsouth Reawakening Group (SSRG), Mr. Joseph Amabakederemo, lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for being bold to let Nigerians know who their ‘enemies’ are.

    He said the action of the members of the National Assembly in cutting budget proposals for critical development projects, only to increase their own home pay was a manifestation of selfishness over national interest and charged President Buhari to quickly proceed to send a supplementary appropriation bill to the National Assembly to address the injustice done by the lawmakers.

    “If the alarm raised by the president is real then we should all come out to condemn the National Assembly for being reckless and anti-people,” he said.

    “To say the least, I personally consider it appalling, wicked and shameful. How can the National Assembly that has representatives and senators from across the country, including Niger Delta, be part of a plot to under-fund key projects in the region? It is wicked and selfish.

    “If anything would be reviewed downwards in this country’s budget, especially at this critical time when we all are hoping that we restructure indeed, then it should have been salaries and allowances of politicians, but these people went on to reduce budgets for structural development projects and increased their own take home pay, how more insensitive can they be? Since they will not stop padding the budget for the sake of feathering their own nests, then the president should also continue to expose their evil plans against Nigeria.

    “Nigerians will wait for them at the polls in 2019. I will advise the president to immediately prepare a supplementary budget to cover a review for those projects which funding were downsized by the National Assembly, Nigeria can’t wait to get on the right track”, he said.

    Also, reacting to the development, the convener of the SSRG, Ambakederemo, said that senators from the areas negatively affected by the budget cut-down have a case to answer with their constituents.

     

  • 2018 Budget: Presidency faults NASS over distortion

    The Presidency on Friday faulted the decision of National Assembly to distort the 2018 Budget after N270 billion allocation was made for their constituency projects.

    According to a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, while  N100 billion was already provided for constituency projects in the 2018 Budget proposal, the executive also allowed additional N170 billion provision for the projects from the increased oil benchmark.

    He said “Sequel to the response of the National Assembly justifying its distortion of the 2018 Budget, the following clarifications have become necessary.

    “Throughout the budget consideration process the executive, through the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, was in touch with the National Assembly. The executive was approached by the National Assembly who indicated that they intended to increase the benchmark price by US$5, from US$45 to US$50. Out of the US$5 increase the National Assembly informed the Executive that they intended to utilize US$2 (amounting to about N170 billion) for projects selected by themselves.

    “They asked the Executive to suggest important projects that could be accommodated with the funds arising from the balance of US$3.

    “After some consideration, the Executive was of the view that an increase in the benchmark price of crude oil to US$50 was not unrealistic and the President decided to accept this in the spirit of compromise required for a successful budget exercise.

    ‘The Executive had, in that spirit, suggested that from the additional funds arising out of the US$3 increase, $1.25 from the increase should not be appropriated as expenditure, but utilized to reduce the deficit in the budget.

    “The Executive therefore restricted itself to submitting, for the consideration of the National Assembly, important items that could be funded from US$1.75 of the US$3 increase. NASS eventually raised the benchmark price to US$51, apparently to accommodate the additional allocations to Health and NDDC.

    “The Executive is therefore surprised that with an additional sum of N170 billion Naira available for the National Assembly to spend on Constituency Projects, together with the sum of N100 billion Naira, already provided for in the Budget, that the National Assembly should feel it necessary to cut allocations to important national projects, and thereby distort the Budget, in order to further increase their allocation for Constituency projects. How much is enough!” he added

    He said that the President’s position was clear from paragraph 12k of the President’s speech, where he said “About 70 new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. In doing so, the National Assembly applied some of the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark to the Ministry’s vote. Regrettably, however, in order to make provision for some of the new roads, the amounts allocated to some strategic major roads have been cut by the National Assembly”.

  • 2018 Budget: NASS is Insensitive, Self-serving – IYC

    The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has described the alterations made to the 2018 Budget by the National Assembly as self-serving and against national interest.

    In a statement signed by its National President, Eric Omare, the IYC took particular exception to the reduction of initial funds earmarked by the Executive for the takeoff of the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU), Okorenkoko and the all-important East/West Road, which are considered as key to the sustenance of peace in the Niger Delta.

    According to the youths, the action of the National Assembly has depicted its members as insensitive, noting that the lawmakers had consistently showed itself as a gathering of people opposed to the well-being of people of the region.

    It, however, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to waste no time in sending a supplementary budget to the National Assembly, which would make up for the mutilations in the original appropriation bill sent to the lawmakers.

    IYC said: “We consider the action of the National Assembly as insensitive and retrogressive to the development of the country. It is utter selfishness for the National Assembly to reduce the budget proposal for key developmental initiatives and increased the budget for their personal cost when they are supposed to reduce their recurrent expenses. We condemn this action by the National Assembly. The National Assembly demonstrated selfishness and arrogated their personal interest over and above the national interest which they were elected to serve.

    “It would be recalled that the immediate take-off of the Nigerian Maritime University, Delta State, was one of the key agreements reached between the leaders of the Niger Delta region and the federal government towards returning peace back to the region. It was in furtherance of this agreement that N5billion naira was budgeted for the take-off of the university which we the stakeholders in the Niger Delta region consider grossly inadequate because of the difficult terrain where the university is sited. The Nigeria Maritime University, Delta State, needs a lot of money for it to find its footing, especially at this initial stage of its existence in developing key physical infrastructure and engagement of qualified personnel to run the university.”

     

     

  • 2018 Budget: NASS will address media on concerns by Buhari- Senate

    The Senate has said 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 Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi made this known in a statement on Wednesday.

    President Buhari in his speech while signing the 2018 budget on Wednesday, had raised concern about some changes made to the budget by the National Assembly.

    Abdullahi said 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.

    Read Also: Buhari signs Budget 2018 despite N578b injection

    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.

    “Furthermore, many of these new projects introduced by the National Assembly have been added to the budgets of most MDAs with no consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.

    “As it is, some of these projects relate to matters that are the responsibility of the States and Local Governments, and for which the Federal Government should therefore not be unduly burdened.

    ” 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.

    “The provisions for Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks, which are key industrialization initiatives of this Administration, were cut by a total of 14.5 billion Naira.

    “The provision for Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from 2 billion Naira to 500 million Naira which will further delay the completion of this critical project.”

    He also said, “the take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State, a key strategic initiative of the Federal Government, was cut from 5 billion Naira to 3.4 billion Naira.

    “About seventy (70) new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. In doing so, the National Assembly applied some of the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark to the Ministry’s vote.

    “Regrettably, however, in order to make provision for some of the new roads, the amounts allocated to some strategic major roads have been cut by the National Assembly.

    “Another area of concern is the increase by the National Assembly of the provisions for Statutory Transfers by an aggregate of 73.96 billion Naira.

    “Most of these increases are for recurrent expenditure at a time we are trying to keep down the cost of governance.

    “An example of this increase is the budget of the National Assembly itself which has increased by 14.5 billion Naira, from 125 billion Naira to 139.5 billion Naira without any discussion with the Executive.”

    NAN