The row over the 2016 budget between the Presidency and the National Assembly has divided the rank of the senators. The Senate had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the money bill passed by the lawmakers and forward a supplementary budget to accommodate omissions, particularly the Lagos- Calabar rail project.
But senators from the Southern part of Nigeria have asked the president to withhold his assent on the 2016 budget if the Appropriation Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly refused to include the Lagos- Calabar rail project in the money bill.
While the National Assembly stated that the Lagos-Calabar rail project was not in the budget submitted by the president, the executive insisted that the project was included in the amended money bill.
The Senate, on Tuesday, declared that it would not revisit the budget based on omissions from the executive and asked Buhari to forward supplementary budget for consideration.
To take a position on the row, the senators from the South-West and South- South geopolitical zones met at their caucus levels on Tuesday night and resolved to resist any attempt to deny their people, the viable project.
New Telegraph learnt that while the South-South senators met at undisclosed locations outside the National Assembly complex, the South-West senators met at the residence of Senator Gbenga Ashafa.
Some of the senators who attended the caucus meetings told our correspondent that the call for the supplementary budget was an attempt to deny the South an opportunity to enjoy a viable rail project.
Confirming the position of the southern senators in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja, Adesoji Akanbi (Oyo South) said the APC caucus in the South-West were solidly behind the position of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, Ashafa, over the issue.
He said the signing of the budget now without the inclusion of the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar rail project would not be in the interest of the people of the South-West. He said: “Personally, I see no reason why the funds in the Ministry of Transport should be moved completely to the Ministry of Works for the construction of roads which belongs to state governments without engineering design.
“We are seeking the reversion of this decision because the Lagos-Calabar rail project is very viable and it cuts across states in the South-South and South-West and it would galvanise the socio-economic activities of the affected regions.
“Apart from this, the project is a joint venture between Nigeria and Japan and it is time bound. Any attempt to leave it out of the budget this year, will affect the execution of the project.”
Akanbi pointed out that the argument of the appropriation committees that they could not accommodate the Lagos-Calabar rail project, because it was not included in the budget presented by Buhari was not tenable because a supplementary provision was supplied.
He hinted that a similar situation happened in the committee of solid minerals when the rents on some of the ministry’s properties were omitted in the budget presented, noting that the officials of the ministry were asked to go and re-present a supplementary budget of N5 million, which was instantly included by the committee and presented to the appropriation committee and consequently accommodated.
He said: “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 had no engineering design and does not even belong to the Federal Government?”
A senator from the South-South, who pleaded anonymity, said the Lagos- Calabar rail project was as important to the southerners just as the Kano rail project is as important to the northerners. He said:
“The Federal Government deliberately wanted the Lagos-Calabar rail project in the budget to balance the northern and southern interest, so nobody can remove it.” When our correspondent contacted Senator Sonni Ogbuoji (PDP, Ebonyi South), he said that the South-East Senate Caucus was yet to meet on the matter, saying that they would take a position whenever they met.
