As it stands, Nigeria is poised to spend more on renovating the National Assembly complex in Abuja than it would on repairing federal roads across the country.
In the 2020 budget signed on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari, the renovation of the National Assembly complex is set to gulp ?37 billion.
Details of the spending were first given on Monday by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, who said Mr Buhari approved the amount after lawmakers met with him to explain the poor condition of the legislature building in Abuja.
The plan to spend the equivalent of $100 million on repairing just one building at a time key infrastructure, hospitals and schools across the country remain in terrible shape, has angered many Nigerians. Some have questioned how much would be required to build a new National Assembly if mere repairs cost that much.
For comparisons, while National Assembly votes that much for its own building, all that is earmarked by the government for capital projects by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) — the agency saddled with repairing broken federal roads across Nigeria — is N36.6 billion.
While the Federal Ministry of Works oversees the building of all federal roads, it is FERMA that is in charge of their repairs. Both agencies have struggled with poor funding over the years and have left hundreds of roads in the country in disrepair.
Last week, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the government owed contractors working on federal road projects up to N306 billion. He defended why the government should raise VAT and borrow more.
“If we had N1 trillion to spend on Nigerian roads we would be in a much better position. As of October, we were owing contractors N306 billion and more bills are coming in and all we got was N73billion,” he was quoted as saying.
Federal roads span 32,980 km (17% of the nation’s road network of 194,000 km), according to the estimate quoted by Mr Fashola in October when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Works. Most of the roads are broken and require attention.
The money for the renovation of the parliament building is not part of N128 billion voted for the National Assembly next year.
The N37 billion is tucked under the capital spending of the Federal Capital Development Administration. The capital expenditure for the FCTA is N62.4 billion, meaning more than half the money that should address Abuja’s deplorable infrastructure will go to fixing only the National Assembly.
The Senate President, Lawan, told journalists that no major renovation had been done on the National Assembly property for 20 years and many parts of the property had become dilapidated.
“The phase one renovation will commence – the chambers and committee rooms in the white house. N37 billion was sourced and was given. It was put under the FCT, not national Assembly. All we require is to have the complex renovated,” Lawan said.
“When we are through with phase 1, we will go to phase 2. It is not under the control of the National Assembly. The complex is a national asset and is for the FCDA to take care.”
While monies may not have been assigned specifically for the “renovation” of the building, the National Assembly has received multiple funding for improved infrastructure since 1999.
… swears in Ngige’s wife as Perm Sec
President Muhammadu Buhari has administered oath of office on nine federal Permanent Secretaries, including the wife of Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige.
The permanent secretaries were sworn-in in two batches of five and four before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
The nine permanent secretaries are Evelyn Ngige (south-south zone), Musa Hassan (north-east), Ahmed Aliyu (north central), Olushola Idowu (south-west), Andrew Adejoh (north-central) and Umar Tijjani (north-east zone).
Others are Nasir Gwarzo (North-west), Nebeolisa Anakali (south-east) and Fashedemi Peter (south-west zone).
Immediately after the swearing-in of the permanent secretaries, the president and cabinet ministers commenced the last FEC meeting for the year.
The ministries of petroleum resources, internal affairs, transportation as well as National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC); Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Control (NIMASA); the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are among the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) expected to make presentations at the meeting.
