The House of Representatives on Tuesday assured Nigerians of its
resolve to ensure that the controversial N11 billion road projects
enlisted in the 2021 budget proposal of Federal Roads Maintenance
Agency (FERMA) are evenly distributed to all the six geopolitical
zones.
Hon. Yusuf Gagdi who queried the controversial increase in the FERMA’s
envelope gave the update on the Committee’s position while reacting to
allegations bothering on ‘hurried conclusion of the budget defence’
without taking members’ input, raised by Hon. Bamidele Salam
(PDP-Osun).
While noting that the issue of N11 billion allegedly inserted into the
FERMA budget proposal was addressed during the budget defence, Hon.
Gagdi maintained that the Committee will stop at nothing to ensure the
projects spread across all the six geopolitical zones if at all it
would be adopted into the 2021 Appropriation Act.
“Every member believed that, yes we agreed and we have not passed the
budget. There was an envelope that was given to FERMA by Ministry of
Finance through Ministry of Works, which is the supervising ministry
of FERMA and I came to discover that the project was increased not by
the National Assembly. Normally Ministry of Finance has enveloped
budget because we operate envelope budget so I was aware of the fact
that the envelope that was given to FERMA was not up to 30 billion, it
was 20 something billion.
“And all of a sudden, I just discovered that they have submitted from
the Ministry of Finance, to the National Assembly over 30 something
billion with an increment of about 11 billion. I raised that issue and
I still stand on my feet that no how did you increase it? It is even
the right of the budget office to submit whatever they want to submit
to the national Assembly I won’t even call it padding because they
have increased the money beyond the envelope of their Ministry.
“But my argument is this, where will you increase about 11 billion to
one state? It is not possible. Then the committee on FERMA agreed that
the purpose of elective representative is to ensure equity and
fairness to all the geopolitical entities. We now say you have brought
this budget, that it is once sided. If you look at my comment very
well, I tackle the fact that the budget is not balanced. So we must
balance the budget as the people that have the right to do it in such
a way that it resembles the interest of Nigerians. So my position on
the 11 billion still stands that from somewhere between the Ministry
of Works and Ministry of Finance, 11 billion was increased at
inter-ministerial level in the budget of FERMA. And I still stand by
it.”
According to him, “I will give you the document, you will see it
clearly. The predominant state that got that 11 billion that was
increased it is Imo State without any fear of political contradictions
but I don’t know who increased it,” he said.
Speaking earlier after the budget defence session, Hon. Bamidele Salam
(PDP-Osun) observed that “there was an attempt to rush the passage of
the budget and prevent those of us who had observations from doing so.
“Immediately the FERMA MD presented the budget, a colleague was
raising a motion for the adoption of the budget and I raised a point
of order. By parliamentary procedure, a point of order should take
precedence over every other matter. In the attempt to make my point of
order, I saw that the person who moved the motion was behaving like
the spokesperson for FERMA.
“The observation that I made was very simple: first is the fact that
in the 2021 budget proposal analysis that I have before me, out of the
420 projects proposed, the South-West zone which I am from has the
least allocation which is 48, and least allocation which is about N3
billion. That is just a part of it.
“The larger part of it is that the constituency that I represent,
Ede-North/Ede-South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency, does not
have a single allocation of a project out of the 420 projects. Even
the whole of the state where I come from, Osun State, which is
represented by nine members in the House, does not have a single
projected allocated to it, out of a budget of N38.2bn proposed by
FERMA.
“I felt I should at least have a right of audience but, unfortunately,
the person who was preventing that from happening is from Plateau
State and I can see in this same budget, Plateau is getting about 18
projects. Why should he not want someone who does not have anything in
his own state to raise a point of order and make this observations?
This is unfair, unjust and against the spirit of the Nigerian
Constitution.
“That was the point I was trying to make before he came up and the
whole session came into a rowdy conclusion.”
When asked if FERMA’s proposal was eventually passed by the committee,
Salam said, “No. Certainly not, because if the budget would be passed,
we would have to vote on the motion that was purportedly moved by him.
But like I said, it ended up a rowdy session.”
The lawmaker added, “The National Assembly should be tired of being
called a rubberstamp Assembly. We are not; we are it supposed to be.
If a ministry, department or agency brings in a document, we should
subject that document to a thorough scrutiny.
“We should scrutinise it with the eye of the law, and equity, fairness
and justice. That is what the parliament should do but that is what
some people are trying to resist, from what happened at this meeting.
I think we should go back to look at this document and ask ourselves
honestly: does this budget proposal by FERMA reflect the spirit of the
Nigerian Constitution and the budget which is supposed to bring even
development to all parts of the country?
“To me, the answer is no. And if the answer is no, then we should go
back to the drawing board. It is still a proposal; it is a bill before the National Assembly, which is subject to being tinkered with. I am
expecting that the committee, under the chairmanship of Hon. Bamisile, will reconvene and address the concerns that I expressed.”
While reacting to the question on the rowdy session between members of the Committee during the FERMA budget defence, Chairman, House
Committee on FERMA, Hon. Femi Bamisile who dismissed the allegations
bothering on unfavourable allocation of road projects to the South
West and Osun State raised by Hon. Bamidele Salam, explained that the
Committee has resolved to re-invite the FERMA Managing Director, Engr.
Nuruddeen Rafindadi on various issues raised by members.
“We needed to study the budget before we pass it. I have told them
this. This is the same thing that we said last year. You cannot bring
us the budget the same day of passage. These documents are voluminous.
Sometimes, they go as high as 70 or 80 pages. Do you expect a member
to be reading 80 pages as they pass it?
“They will take time to do that and that was why we asked them to come
back today and when they came, everybody has had time to study the
document and questions were asked. There was an issue there when one
of our members was raising a point of order that his state did not
have enough projects.
“I made it clear to him that if you have read the budget, you will see
your state represented. I can tell you what each state has. I told the
member the number of projects in his state. Unfortunately, he didn’t
see it there. Even after I have made my ruling, I still allowed him to
move his motion and I made it clear to him that every state was
carried along.
“On Thursday, there was this notion that N11 billion was thrown into
the budget. But after studying it for 72 hours, everybody, including
those who moved the motion were convinced that all was well with the
budget.
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