The impasse over 2016 Budget assumed a rowdy dimension in the House of Reps with members demanding the resignation of the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
They were furious that Jibrin secretly included projects worth N4.169billion to his constituency outside what was budgeted by the Executive.
Members are also angry over allocation of N40billion (at N20b apiece) to those in the leadership of both the Senate and the House of Reps.
They specifically faulted the concession of projects of over N3billion to the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara out of the N20billion for the House leadership.
Amidst shouting match, lawmakers warned that the House must do away with the past dirty practices where the budget is personalised by one man (Speaker) and his associates.
Sensing protest at plenary, the Speaker and his principal officers opted for an Executive session.
The session began at about 11.30am on a sombre note with the Speaker offering some rapprochement in order to calm down frayed nerves.
A source at the session said: “After initial courtesies, the Speaker hit the point by claiming that everything being said about the budget remains hearsay because the Executive has not returned the Appropriation Bill.
“He added a caveat by pleading members to avoid anything which could affect the unity of the House.”
A ranking Representative said: “Most members were not persuaded by attempts by Jibrin to incite them against the Executive. They rose up and started shouting at Jibrin for not doing a diligent job.
“Some asked him whether it was the Executive that asked him to allocate huge projects to his constituency when there was no provision for these in the proposals of the Executive.
“Many were yelling and demanding Jibrin’s resignation for the ineffective manner he handled the budget. Even when the Speaker called for calm, they shouted that they “cannot defend the indefensible because Nigerians are angry against the National Assembly for playing politics with the budget.”
A lawmaker from the South-West said: “At the Executive session, members asked the leadership about the N40billion projects allocated to the principal officers of the Senate and the House. Each of the leadership of the two chambers will share N20billion projects.
“Members queried why N3billion projects have been allocated to the Speaker and why Jibrin favoured his constituency with N4.169billion projects.”
Some of the projects allocated to Jibrin’s Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency are:
N100m for Town Hall
Construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji—N150m
Solar street lights—N300m
Badaf Road Construction—N405m
Pedestrian Bridges —N200m
Bebeji Earth Dam—N270m
Empowerment items—N100m
Entrepreneurship Development Training and Vocational Centre —N100m
Rehabilitation of Gwarzo Kiru, Kwanar Maiyaki–N180m
Rehabilitation of Sharada-Kwanar Dogara—N1.445billion
Construction of solar powered boreholes–N150m
Supply of tricycles, grinding machines and set of women salon empowerment kits—N200m
Small irrigation scheme ins in Kiru—N100m Speaker Dogara later managed to douse the tension by begging angry members to sheathe their swords
They were furious that Jibrin secretly included projects worth N4.169billion to his constituency outside what was budgeted by the Executive.
Members are also angry over allocation of N40billion (at N20b apiece) to those in the leadership of both the Senate and the House of Reps.
They specifically faulted the concession of projects of over N3billion to the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara out of the N20billion for the House leadership.
Amidst shouting match, lawmakers warned that the House must do away with the past dirty practices where the budget is personalised by one man (Speaker) and his associates.
Sensing protest at plenary, the Speaker and his principal officers opted for an Executive session.
The session began at about 11.30am on a sombre note with the Speaker offering some rapprochement in order to calm down frayed nerves.
A source at the session said: “After initial courtesies, the Speaker hit the point by claiming that everything being said about the budget remains hearsay because the Executive has not returned the Appropriation Bill.
“He added a caveat by pleading members to avoid anything which could affect the unity of the House.”
A ranking Representative said: “Most members were not persuaded by attempts by Jibrin to incite them against the Executive. They rose up and started shouting at Jibrin for not doing a diligent job.
“Some asked him whether it was the Executive that asked him to allocate huge projects to his constituency when there was no provision for these in the proposals of the Executive.
“Many were yelling and demanding Jibrin’s resignation for the ineffective manner he handled the budget. Even when the Speaker called for calm, they shouted that they “cannot defend the indefensible because Nigerians are angry against the National Assembly for playing politics with the budget.”
A lawmaker from the South-West said: “At the Executive session, members asked the leadership about the N40billion projects allocated to the principal officers of the Senate and the House. Each of the leadership of the two chambers will share N20billion projects.
“Members queried why N3billion projects have been allocated to the Speaker and why Jibrin favoured his constituency with N4.169billion projects.”
Some of the projects allocated to Jibrin’s Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency are:
N100m for Town Hall
Construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji—N150m
Solar street lights—N300m
Badaf Road Construction—N405m
Pedestrian Bridges —N200m
Bebeji Earth Dam—N270m
Empowerment items—N100m
Entrepreneurship Development Training and Vocational Centre —N100m
Rehabilitation of Gwarzo Kiru, Kwanar Maiyaki–N180m
Rehabilitation of Sharada-Kwanar Dogara—N1.445billion
Construction of solar powered boreholes–N150m
Supply of tricycles, grinding machines and set of women salon empowerment kits—N200m
Small irrigation scheme ins in Kiru—N100m Speaker Dogara later managed to douse the tension by begging angry members to sheathe their swords
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