The impasse over the 2016 Budget assumed a
rowdy dimension in the House of
Representatives with members demanding the
resignation of the
Chairman of the House Committee on
Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
They were furious that Jibrin influenced the
allocation of projects worth N4.169billion to
his constituency outside what was budgeted
by the Executive.
Also, members opposed allocation of
N40billion( at N20b apiece) to those in the
leadership of both the Senate and the House.
They specifically faulted the concession of
projects of over N3billion to the Speaker, Rt.
Hon. Yakubu Dogara out of the N20billion for
the House leadership.
Amidst shouting match, the lawmakers said
the House should do away with past practices
of personalising budget.
It was gathered that sensing likely protest at
the plenary over the budget, the Speaker and
his principal officers opted for an Executive
session.
The Executive session began at about
11.30am on a sombre note with the Speaker
offering some rapprochement in order to calm
down frayed nerves.
A source at the session said: “After initial
courtesies, the Speaker hit the point by
claiming that everything being said about the
budget remains hearsay because the
Executive has not returned the Appropriation
Bill.
“He quickly added a caveat by urging
members to avoid anything which could affect
the unity of the House.”
Lending weight to the Speaker’s plea, Hon.
Monguno (Borno) urged members to “wait for
reactions until the budget is returned.”
It was gathered that Dogara’s plea fell on deaf
ears as members raised issues on the
controversy surrounding the budget.
Some of those who spoke at the session on
the budget included Nnana(Imo); Aliyu Sani
Madaki( Kano); Prof. Mojeed Alabi(Osun);
Douye Diri (Bayelsa) and Comrade Phillip
Shuaibu( Edo).
Jibrin, who rose to defend the budget details,
met more than he bargained for.
A ranking Representative said: “Most
members were not persuaded by attempts by
Jibrin to incite them against the Executive.
They rose up and started shouting at Jibrin for
not doing a diligent job.
“Some asked him whether it was the
Executive that asked him to allocate huge
projects to his constituency when there was
no provision for these in the proposals of the
Executive.
“Many were yelling and demanding Jibrin’s
immediate resignation for the ineffective
manner the Appropriation Committee handled
the budget.
“Even when the Speaker called for calm, they
shouted that they “cannot defend the
indefensible in the press because Nigerians
are angry against the National Assembly for
playing politics with the budget.”
A lawmaker from the South-West said: “At the
Executive session, members asked the
leadership about the N40billion projects
allocated to the principal officers of the
Senate and the House. Each of the leadership
of the two chambers will share N20billion
projects.
“Members queried why N3billion projects have
been allocated to the Speaker and why Jibrin
favoured his constituency with N4.169billion
projects.”
“The leadership said the N20b projects were
captured under zonal intervention as it had
been since 1999 but members said if others
were doing it in the past, it should not be
now.”
Some of the projects allocated to Jibrin’s
Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency are:
N100m for Town Hall
Construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji—N150m
Solar street lights—N300m
Badaf Road Construction—N405m
Pedestrian Bridges —N200m
Bebeji Earth Dam—N270m
Empowerment items—N100m
Entrepreneurship Development Training and
Vocational Centre —N100m
Rehabilitation of Gwarzo Kiru, Kwanar Maiyaki–
N180m
Rehabilitation of Sharada-Kwanar Dogara—
N1.445billion
Construction of solar powered boreholes–
N150m
Supply of tricycles, grinding machines and set
of women salon empowerment kits—N200m
Small irrigation scheme ins in Kiru—N100m
Findings revealed that at the end of the day,
Speaker Dogara managed to douse the tension
by begging members to sheathe their swords.
www.thenationonlineng.net/reps-angry-dogara-jibrin-others-inject-n40b-projects-budget/