Luka Binniyat
14 January 2009
The House of Representatives Committee on the Niger Delta was not impressed by the two Ministers of the newly formed Niger Delta Ministry, when they appeared before it yesterday and asked that N18.5 billion capital vote be approved for the Ministry even though they are yet to think of the projects to do with the money.
The two Ministers, Obong Uffot Ekaette and his Minister of State, Godsday Orubebe, while defending the N50 billion allocation to the Ministry for 2009 Appropriation Bill, had told the Committee to just accept that N18.5 billion will be used by the Ministry for the execution of some jobs, which they are yet to determine.
The House of Representatives had promised last week to pass the 2009 Budget on the January 22, 2008.
"We have been given N50 billion by the Presidency this year to start with," said Ekaette, former Secretary to the Federal Government (SFG) of Nigeria.
"Of this amount, we are spending N3 billion on recurrent and N47 billion on capital project. But Already the East-West Road project, will take N8.4 billion. We have set aside N18.5 billion for other capital projects, but we are yet to determine them.
"I want to plead that you pass this amount, as we will surely work out projects and tie them to the money."
The Committee members expressed surprise at the demand, and many of them took turns to advise the two ministers not to tarnish their "hard earned" reputation with their new jobs.
"There is no way that this committee will pass N18.5 billion with not even one detail", said the Chairman of the Committee, Alaka Nworgu. "
"We do not do gross approval but line approval", he told the Minister. You must provide us with the details tomorrow (today) or we will not pass it.
What are we going to tell the Appropriation Committee when they ask us why there is no project tied to the amount?
"You two are very experience people in governance and you ought to know that what you are asking for is simply not possible, if we must work as responsible House of Reps at trying to meet the 7-point agenda of Mr. President of which your Ministry is one", he said.
Asked, how they intend to spend the N3 billion on recurrent, since the Ministry has not recruited any staff, the Ministers did not give an answer.
"The issue of the Niger Delta is a very serous one, and you must approach it as such", advised Hon. Igo Aguma.
"N50 billion for your Ministry is very meagre considering what is on ground there. But, you should be able to tell us what you want to do with the money. We don"t have time to spare, please"
The Minister however said that they would only be able to come out with a working plan in the next two weeks.
Chief Arubebe on his part said that they were committee to the issue of the Niger Delta, saying their method will be to approach the Communities directly and not use any third party.
As the meting got a bit more embarrassing for the Ministers in the full battery of the Press, the Committee adopted a motion, in which they went into an executive session.
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THIS ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE HONOURABLES AND THE MINISTERS SHOWS HOW GOOD THE PRESIDENT IS IN PUTTING ROUND PEGS IN SQUARE HOLES. THIS IS ANOTHER AVENUE TO REWARD THE LOYALISTS. WITH THE CREATION OF THE NIGER DELTA MINISTRY THE ONLY THING THAT WILL CHANGE IS THAT FEW PEOPLE WILL GET RICHER WHILE THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE REGION WILL GET WORSE. THAT IS HOW THEY ALLOCATE PUBLIC RESOURSES.