N’Assembly slashes budget for Lagos- Ibadan exp-way, 2nd Niger bridge – minister
N’Assembly slashes budget
for Lagos- Ibadan exp-way, 2nd Niger bridge – minister
The National Assembly slashed N21 billion off the N31 billion vote
for the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Works and
Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said. Speaking in Lagos during the week, Mr. Fashola
said N5 billion was also taken off the Second Niger Bridge. He said funds saved
were “diverted” to projects inserted into the 2017 budget by the lawmakers,
which were not government’s priorities.
“What I have in my budget now is primary healthcare
centres, boreholes,” Mr.
Fashola said. “That was the meeting we had
with the Acting President and that was the reason why the budget was not signed
on time.
“We were asked to complete those abandoned
projects; the budget of Lagos- Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National
Assembly from N31 billion to N10 billion.
“We are owing the contractors about N15 billion
and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.
“Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was
reduced from N15 billion to N10 billion and about N3 billion or so was removed
from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget,’’ he said.
According to Mr. Fashola, “Everybody is complaining
about power supply but they also cut the budget for Manbila power project and
the Bodo bridge that connects the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Station was
also cut.”
“If after we had defended the budget and we
had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the
purpose of deliberation?’’ he added. Mr. Fashola said it was unfair to Nigerians
that after public hearings were conducted with tax payers’ money and consultations
held with the lawmakers, the budget would be altered, cut or
padded.
According to the former Lagos state governor, in addition to the 200
uncompleted roads he inherited from the previous administration, the lawmakers added
100.
“These roads are not federal roads and some
of them do not have designs; how do we award roads that were not designed
irrespective of the power you have?,” he said.
“It is unconstitutional for the National Assembly
to legislate on state roads. The executive controls all the machinery for collecting
taxes and other revenue with relevant data from the Ministries of Finance,
Physical Planning and the Budget Office and others.
“I am not saying that the legislature cannot
contribute to the budget, but I hold the view that it cannot increase the
budget because they do not collect the revenue with which to run or implement
the budget.
“The society benefits more from the power
of example and interdependence rather than the example (show) of power; it
requires that we show good examples.’’
