LEGISLATIVE RASCALITY: Lawmakers Expunged Provision for Health, Essential Drugs, Reallocates Fund To Purchase Ambulances

DETAILS of the 2016 Appropriation Budget of the country dispatched to President Mohammadu Buhari last week by the National Assembly for presidential assent was deficient of commonsense if the allegations made on the details were factual.

According to details, in the health sector, the funds proposed by the President for the purchase of essential drugs for major health campaigns including AIDS, Polio, Cancer, among others were removed and the funds budgeted for it reallocated for provision of ambulances which the ministry did not ask for. 

Despite all these aberrations, the Committee chairman in the upper legislative arm stated that the 2016 budget passed by the National Assembly are people-oriented and implementable. 
Apart from the abnormality on the health sector, the two giant railway projects earmarked by the Federal Government for the two regions (North and South); Lagos-Calabar and Lagos-Kano railways were inequitably handled by approving one for the north and scrapped the one for the south. Above all, part of the fund allocated to the railway was allegedly added to the one in the northern part of the country.

The Presidency had presented a budget which included N80 billion earmarked for Lagos-Calabar railway project and N100billion for the Lagos-Kano railway project. The lawmakers in exercising its functions scrapped the former entirely and then took N4o billion budget for the project to add up the latter (Lagos-Kano railway) bringing the figure to N140 billion.

The remaining N40 billion was then distributed to some projects located in the north, mainly roads, allegedly located within the constituencies of the Appropriation Committee  Chairman in the Senate and House of Representatives, Senator Danjuma Goje and Hon. Abdulmumini Jibrin, respectively.

Similarly, certain provisions made in the areas of agriculture and water resources to further the federal government’s diversification project were either removed or reduced while the funds were moved to provision of rural health facilities and boreholes for which provision had been made elsewhere.

A source at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on Friday acknowledged these facts and assured that the President will certainly send back the budget to the National Assembly as the key projects of the present administration aimed at stimulating the economy as well as provide employment opportunities were removed from the budget, stressing that if assented to, will create serious crisis in the polity.

“We noticed that some very key aspects of the budget, which have to do with President Mohammadu Buhari’s core infrastructure focus, were removed. One of which is the subject of the President’s trip to China- the Coastal project-for which a counterpart funding was provided, but which was completely removed by the National Assembly.

“The executive is working on two major rail arteries, among other rail projects, to service the northern and eastern part of the country- the Lagos-Kano line and the Calabar –Lagos line. While the Lagos-Kano provision was left untouched, the Calabar-Lagos line was removed. 

The projects are to be funded jointly between the governments of China and Nigeria. It is one of the main reasons for the President’s scheduled trip to China.

The other fundamental area noticed was in respect of completion of ongoing road projects. While the executive had provided for the completion of all major road projects across the country, the National Assembly reduced the amounts provided and instead included new roads on which studies have not even been conducted.

“The amounts provided by the National Assembly for the projects can neither complete the ongoing road projects nor the new ones proposed. At the end of the year, no significant progress would have been made”, the source stated.

In addition, the source stated that the President is very desirous to sign the budget so as to reduce the present economic crisis in the country.

“The President is desirous of signing the bill into law so that implementation of the provisions could begin in earnest for the benefit of the people. That is why the moment he received the document on Thursday, a meeting was convened for Friday to immediately start work on it”.