Did the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola  pad the 2017 budget with the sum of N37 billion? The House of Representatives  thinks he did and they are angry about it. He has been accused of smuggling the sum into the 2017 budget for bogus projects that were non-existent, could not be explained nor justified.

The House which said Fashola is bellyaching against the National Assembly because the lawmakers discovered the sums and removed them before passing the budget, also lambasted the minister for blackmailing the National Assembly, saying “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 House made these and other frontal comments in reaction to reported statements by the minister to the effect that the legislators removed key projects captured in the budget and introduced boreholes and other items meant to be taken care of by state governments.

In an 18-paragraph statement signed by Mr. Namdas Abdulrazak (APC, Adamawa), the House accused Fashola of proposing the spend N17billion on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Mambilla Power project and another N20billion for an undisclosed project he meant to execute unilaterally.

The Reps said: “On the Mambila Power Project, the Minister proposed a whopping N17 Billion for only Environmental Impact Assessment. 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!

“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.”

The statement said Fashola did not appear to appreciate the fact that housing and boreholes were part of the mandate of the ministry he supervises and stressed that he “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 was meant for Roads and Power.”

“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?

“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). 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.

“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 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 .

“Furthermore, 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 was 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.

“Finally, 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. 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.”