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…Insist 2022 budget amendment is recipe for flood disaster
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Following the warning prediction by relevant agencies, some concerned Nigerians under the aegis of Critical Stakeholders have urged Nigerians to hold lawmakers, especially members of the National Assembly, responsible in the event of flood disaster.
The call was on the heels of an appeal by Amnesty International to the federal government to take concrete steps that will mitigate the potential consequences of flash flooding to avoid a repeat of last year’s floods, which killed more than 612 people across the country.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja at the weekend, the stakeholders claimed thwt the decision by the National Assembly to alter the 2022 supplementary budget which made copious provisions for flood control infrastructure was a great disservice to the nation’s desire to mitigate flooding and its impact.
Leader of the team, Godwin Ezenwata claimed that the lawmakers tinkered with the sum of N180 billion earmarked for the construction and rehabilitation of roads among other flood control infrastructures across the country by ‘disproportionately re-allocating in a skewed manner to suit their interest’.
Ezenwata appealed to President Bola Tinubu to halt the ongoing amendment by the lawmakers and stressed the need for equal distribution of the N180 billion “since virtually all the states have projects need and are gearing up for flood disasters”.
“This was a budget that had provision of about N700 billon but slashed to a paltry N185 billion out of which the lawmakers shared the projects among themselves with the sum of N50 billion allocated for two projects in Jigawa state simply because those working on the budget are from the North West while other projects of similar importance were allocated just N10 million,” the stakeholders claimed.
The stakeholders added that contracts for most of the erosion control projects have been awarded with works at advanced stages of completion.
They also wondered why; “government is shifting the goal post in the middle of the match”, even as they alleged that most of the contractors got the jobs from the former NASS members who now feel shortchanged by the current members following the tinkering of the budget.
President Tinubu’s demand that the National Assembly should amend the 2022 supplementary appropriation act to make provisions for N500 million to cushion the effect of subsidy removal, the lawmakers substantially tinkered with the act and slashed provisions made for flood control.
A copy of the amended budget showed that the sum of N10 million each was allocated for three road projects in Nasarawa.
Similarly, N10 million each was allocated for Idah-Nsukka Road, section IV and section V of Kano-Maiduguri Road, and Augie-Bubuche road in Kebbi state.
Only recently there was similar protest by a Civil Society Organisation, Good Governance Initiative (GGI), that chided the president for asking the National Assembly to amend the 2022 supplementary Appropriation Act to make provision for N500 billion to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
The CSO also berated the National Assembly for acceding to the president’s request, warning that drawing funds for the palliatives from the supplementary budget has negative implications on the rule of law and due process insisting that it could make investors lose confidence in the Nigerian government.
