From Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Blessing Agbebaku, has given reasons why the allocation to the office of the Deputy Governor in the 2024 appropriation was slashed to about N345 million.
The Speaker who clarified the issue while speaking to journalists, said not much responsibilities would be given to the deputy governor in the new year because of his governorship ambition.
Recall that offices of Secretary to State Government (SSG), Head of Service (HoS) and others were given far higher allocation in the Appropriation Bill now signed into law by governor Godwin Obaseki.
Agbebaku however dispelled rumours that there was disenchantment among some members of the House of Assembly who were allegedly plotting to cause crisis in the House for him.
“Unlike the other offices like the SSG, HoS and others, the office of the governor and the deputy governor are the same, it is not only in this year’s budget, even in previous years that is how it has been. On this occasion, the governor stated clearly that since the deputy governor has not performed his functions in the outgoing year because of his aspiration, which he recognised to be a huge one and time consuming, most of his functions were relocated to other offices as the governor has the powers to do so.
“All of us know that the deputy governor doesn’t have constitutional powers bestowed on him except that which is allocated to him by the governor. So most of those things that the deputy governor used to do, the governor has removed from him. He has even gone on media to complain that he is no longer working, if you are not doing work, who will now give you money?
“The money is not allotted to you as a personal gift, it is given for work so if you are not working, naturally the money will not come and there is no way you can be working effectively when you are pushing that ambition.
“We are talking about a year where the most part of it, almost 11 months will be on electioneering. So, how are you now going to function properly as a deputy governor? In his magnanimity, the governor has said, I don’t want to be a stumbling block on your ambition, on your route to becoming governor. So, you should have your time to pursue your ambition to fruition. So, to that extent, he said okay, I’m not going to give you too much function. So, if you’re not given too much function, then not much money will be given to you”, the Speaker explained.
He also debunked allegation that the office of the Speaker got over 19 billion naira allocation in the budget. He said there was no allocation to his office but what was there is the allocation to the state House of Assembly.