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Nigeria: Senate President to Meet Yar'Adua -as Ministry of Finance Cripples Beijing Plans
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Vanguard (Lagos)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Abuja
Nigeria's preparations and participation in the forthcoming Olympic Games are set to be derailed by proposals from the Federal Ministry of Finance aiming to cut off the N1.5 billion earmarked in the 2008 budget for the games.
Besides denying Nigerians the opportunity of watching their athletes parade in the Beijing Olympics, the Federal Ministry of Finance under its approvals for sports in the supplementary appropriation bill also wants to chop off the N2.6 billion earmarked for stadium rehabilitations towards Nigeria's hosting of the FIFA Under 17 World Cup in 2009.
The double edged budget cuts were infuriating sports enthusiasts within and outside the National Assembly who were also lamenting the failure of many Nigerian athletes to report at their training camps because of lack of funds.
Minister of Finance
There were indications that the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, himself a sports enthusiast was set to meet with President Umaru Yar'Adua on the cuts proposed by Finance Ministry officials which if allowed could cripple Nigeria's plans for both the Olympics and the World Under-17 games.
The National Assembly's enhancement of budget figures for sports and some other sectors was central to the face_off between the presidency and the National Assembly leading to the delay in the presidential assent of the budget bill.
As part of the agreement between the National Assembly leadership and the presidency it was agreed that some of the figures enhanced in the budget passed by the National Assembly should be reversed.
Sports Vanguard gathered that the draft budget amendment bill to concretise the agreement between the presidency and the National Assembly proposes to cut the N1.2 billion preparation for the Olympics to N30 million and to wipe out funds for stadium rehabilitation ahead of the Under-17 World cup.
The Federal Ministry of Finance had in the first instance proposed N30 million for Nigeria's preparations for the Olympics, a figure that the National Assembly raised to N1.2 billion in its approval.
Besides, the National Assembly also raised the N600 million proposed for the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to N2 billion and whereas nothing was proposed for Nigeria's preparations for the hosting of the FIFA Under-17 tournament, the National Assembly approved N2.6 billion.
"It is just two months to the Olympics and it is amazing that Nigeria is yet to get the funds to start preparations and you say you want to shine, how can," one concerned lawmaker said at the weekend.
"Under 23 football team is supposed to be in training now in Portugal but they are still stranded in Nigeria because of lack of money," the lawmaker said.
Noting the proposal of the Federal Ministry of Finance to cut off the funding for the stadium rehabilitation the same lawmaker quipped:
"Every nation hosts to win, but the way we are going our capacity to host is even in doubt with the new proposals to remove the funding for stadium rehabilitation when we are even saying that the money earmarked is not even enough."
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Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media, Mr. Kola Ologbondinyan could not confirm to Sports Vanguard the extent of the involvement of his boss on the issue as at press time as a text message to him on the issue was not replied.
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