NASS Rejects Akpabio’s N23bn Capital Budget For Niger Delta, Says, It Was Designed To Fail

The National Assembly has rejected the N23bn proposed in the 2020 budget for Niger Delta presented by the Minister of Niger Delta, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, saying it was designed to fail.
The Senate Committee on Niger Delta, confirmed the development to newsmen shortly after the budget defence at the Senate in Abuja.
The committee noted that the N23.890bn allocated to the ministry in the 2020 budget was not only meagre but too unrealistic to make any impact.
The panel also lamented the inability of the executive to release fund to the commission to fund its capital project in the previous budget.
The committee in its resolve noted that the minister and his team needed to go back to the drawing table.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, condemned the budget adding that, it was grossly inadequate to make any meaningful impact in the Niger Delta region. He also faulted the minister and his team for not to have widely consulted stakeholders in the region.
He said “Where is the director in charge of projects? How did you come about the projects?
“Did you sit in your office and bring projects or did you consult stakeholders in the Niger Delta before you advised the minister on the projects to be put in the budget?”
The Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, described the budget as uncommon budget designed to fail.
He said “This is an uncommon budget. When a budget is designed to fail, it is uncommon.
“I will suggest that the budget be taken back for reworking, taking into cognisance all the projects that were pointed out and we give them another day to come and defend the budget.”
The committee further lamented that President Buhari could not boast of any project since the commission was established in 2015.
Sen. Rochas Okorocha lamented that the budget was not feasible to make any meaningful impact in the region.
He said “This type of budget doesn’t produce anything feasible. You have to do your projects and complete them so you don’t sound like the NDDC because one of the worst establishments is the NDDC.”
In his remarks, the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, admitted that the budget was not sustainable.
He said “I think we should also note that, if we are to capture all the projects that our colleagues have asked us to capture, we will be allocating very paltry amount of money to all the projects.
“At the end of the day, it will not make sense and it will not favour anybody and it will be a budget designed to fail like one of the senators said.
“If we have 300 projects and you have money that can capture only 150, why put everything there and allocate a small amount of money that will not make any difference at the end of the day?”
Meanwhile, the Minister for Niger Delta, Godwill Akpabio, said, “The 2020 budget proposal was prepared using the approved zero-based budgeting approach and also in line with the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.”