The House of Representatives has described the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola’s recent remarks on the 2017 Appropriation Act as an attempt to blackmail the National Assembly.
The lawmakers, in a statement on Saturday said the Minister’s remarks amounted to peddling inaccuracies, misleading and calculated mischief aimed at setting the National Assembly on a collision course with the executive.
House Spokesman, Abdulrazaq Namdas said Fashola’s remarks were meant to paint the National Assembly as an irresponsible institution, one 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.
Saying that the National Assembly has constitutional powers in Section, 4, 59, 80 and 81 to amend the budget estimates submitted by the Executive, Namdas insisted that the National Assembly was not expected to rubber stamp the budget document as presented by the executive as clearly explained by a recent court pronouncement on the powers of appropriation.
According to him, the National Assembly has not done anything outside what was prescribed by constitution concerning the budget, adding that the Minister was economical with the truth over allocations to Lagos-Ibadan expressway, second Nige bridge and several projects where monies were moved from and injected in others.
It reads: “Responding to specific issues raised by Mr Fashola, Namdas explained that the decision to redistribute the projects proposed by the ministry was in order to ensure an even spread of projects across all regions, which the proposal of the executive had failed to do.
“He added that considering that the funds that were allocated for the 2nd Niger Bridge in 2016 were returned untouched at the end of the year, the National Assembly decided to reduce N5 billion from the 2017 Budget for 2nd Niger Bridge to fund other projects from the South East, leaving N7 billion for the 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 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,” he explained.
“Going further, he added that the National Assembly had to intervene to fund some other critical roads that were totally neglected in the Executive Budget proposal, including 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?” he queried.
“On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the lawmaker noted 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, hence the decision to move some funds to other areas of need.
“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?” Namdas asked, adding that the Minister proposed a whopping N17 Billion for only Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Mambila Power plant which the National Assembly felt was misplaced and patently unjustifiable and out of which the Minister himself even wrote to the National Assembly to move some funds from this sub-heads to others.”
“He urged the Minister to be mindful of the fact that the Budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is not his personal budget but that 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, ” the spokesman declared.
“Namdas said the legislature also queried an omnibus allocation of N20 Billion in the ministry’s budget whose details were not provided by the Minister and felt it would be irresponsible to appropriate funds that are not tied to specific projects and incurred the wrath of the “almighty Minister.”
“The legislators further noted that when an increment made in the budget favours the executive, it does not complain, as seen in the MTEF which had a $2 increase per barrel that was not part of the 2017 Appropriation Bill proposed by Mr. President.
“Addressing claims by Fashola that certain matters are State or even Local Government matters, the lawmakers challenged him to lead efforts to abolish the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, a federal government agency, if he feels it should not be covered by the national budget.
“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,” the House said, while urging him to familiarise himself with the duties his ministry is saddled with like providing water in Housing Estates so he will not be surprised to see such projects under his Ministry.
“Namdas also added that it was a clear breach for the executive to make calculated statements to undermine and distort understandings between the National Assembly leadership and the Executive arm on the 2017 Budget which were made in good faith when all arms should be concentrating on how to grow the economy to exit the recession, which the House of Representatives is committed to doing”.
