The Senate on
Wednesday declined approval for the N4 billion allocation proposed by the
Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory for the construction of a building
for the African First Ladies Mission, currently headed by Nigeria's first lady,
Patience Jonathan.
The Chairman of
the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, Smart
Adeyemi, stated this on Wednesday, while confirming that the Senate had passed
the Abuja budget for 2013.
Mr. Adeyemi said
the proposed N4 billion for construction of the first ladies mission building
in Africa was distributed to critical needs in satellite towns. He said the
money to be spent on the mission building could not be approved due to
litigation on the proposed land.
Mr. Adeyemi said
the Senate could not appropriate funds for a land that was not available.
An Abuja court had
ruled that the land proposed by the FCT ministry for the first ladies' building
belonged to an organisation owned by Mrs. Jonathan's predecessor, Turai
Yar'Adua, after a protracted muddy legal battle.
The Abuja
Minister, Bala Mohammed, had revoked the choice land from Mrs. Yar'Adua's
organisation and given it to first ladies' mission; a decision the court
upturned.
Abuja's N260bn budget
The total amount
passed as the 2013 budget for the Nigerian capital by the Senate is N259.6
billion.
A breakdown
revealed that N48.6 billion was earmarked for personnel cost, N50.5 billion for
overhead, while N160.4 billion was for capital expenditure.
Mr. Adeyemi, who
presented the budget to the Senate, said that there was a surplus of N48.7
million. He said that the committee jostled with the budget estimates,
deploying funds to meet areas of critical need like roads, water, health,
education and development of satellite towns.
He said that 43
per cent performance was achieved from N306.4 billion appropriation of 2012.
“Most of the
projects were still ongoing due to overbearing ineptitude of getting the Due
Process Certificate.
“It is also
observed that new and ongoing projects are not sufficiently funded due to delay
in the release of funds as a result of bureaucratic bottlenecks,'' Mrs. Adeyemi
said.
The Senate
President, David Mark, said: “though, FCT is supposed to be a model capital
city, but unfortunately, things are not going well within the city.
“There is (no)
development in the satellite towns and this has resulted in congestion of the
city centre.
“I want to urge
the committee to be more committed to its oversight function so that the passage
of the budget will translate to development in the Nigerian capital,'' Mark
said.
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