2016 BUDGET: Lawmakers Divide Over Inadequacies, Lagos-Calabar Rail Project

INVESTIGATIONS have revealed that Senators from Southern region have thrown their weights behind President Mohammadu Buhari not to give assent to the controversial 2016 Appropriation budget shabbily approved with monumental defects and inconsistencies against the core policies of the administration, and above all, could portend danger to the unity of the country.

This development came as there was an indication yesterday that the Presidency may have returned the Appropriation Budget back to the National Assembly to include the expunged Lagos-Calabar rail project which according to a source was inevitable in the present administration’s agenda of infrastructural development.

 In the similar vein, lawmakers mostly from the south insisted that the budget should not be assented to if the Appropriation Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly fail to include the Calabar-Lagos rail line project in it.

It will be recalled that the Senate on Tuesday had asked the Presidency to submit a supplementary budget on the project, if it felt strongly about it, and ruled out the possibility of including the railway project proposed for the southern geo-graphical zones in the appropriation budget.

Following these developments, Senators had caucus meetings according to geographical zones.   Senator Adesoji Akanbi (Oyo South) who disclosed the position of the southern senators, said the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus in the Southwest was solidly behind the position of Senator Gbenga Ashafa, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, over the rail project adding that the budget will not be assented to until the needful is done to it.

“Personally, I see no reason why the funds in the Ministry of Transportation should be moved completely to the Ministry of Works for the construction of roads which belong to state governments without engineering design.

“We are seeking the reversion of this decision because the Calabar – Lagos rail project is very viable and it cuts across states in the South South and South West and it would galvanise the social and economic activities of the affected regions.

“Apart from this, the project is a joint venture between Nigeria and China and it is time bound. Any attempt to leave it out of the budget this year, will affect the execution of the project. The situation is similar to what happened in the committee on Land Transport because the supplementary budget presented by the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, is allowed in the parliamentary process.

“Why should the money in the Transportation ministry be moved to the Ministry of Works and voted for the construction of roads that have no engineering design and does not even belong to the Federal Government?” Akanbi asked.