Senator Ishaku Abbo (Adamawa North) has called on government agencies to live up to their constitutional duties and be more responsive to the electorate.
Abbo made this statement at the weekend while commenting on the budget defence of the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs in the National Assembly.
The lawmaker, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the system while emphasizing that he is communicating as a “Nigerian, not as a Senator”, sais: “Why are you restricting monitoring of government projects only to zonal interventions?
“Because we are all working to see that we have a country that works. We have seen recently the anger of Nigerians, over something that ought to be settled amicably and went out of hand.
“Why are you restricting monitoring of this government project only to zonal intervention? Why don’t you, as a ministry in charge of Special Duties, put it into your budget; budget of 2022 or 2023, so that you would begin to actually monitor the execution of projects in Nigeria. When you do that, you would be able unfold a lot of scandal in this country; a lot of stealing in this country.’
Abbo said it is imperative to have a country that works.
“This year’s budget is N13trilllion. What is the budget of the National Assembly? The budget of National Assembly is N128Billion. What is the percentage of 128billion out of 13trillion, 0.05. And this National Assembly has House of Reps, we have the Senate. We have National Institute for Legislative Studies, We have National Assembly Service Commission, … We have about five or six agencies under the National Assembly. Their budget is 0.5%. And all eyes is on the National Assembly with 0.5% budget, while the people out there that have the money, no one is talking about them.
“It is your duty as Ministry for Special Duties for you to begin to look for money, budget money. Go to Lagos. Go to Ekiti. Go to Sokoto. Go and see the work Ministry of Works are doing there. Go and see what the Ministry of Power are doing there… Unless you begin to look at the work of these people, we would continue where we are.
“I am speaking now as a Nigerian, I am speaking passionately about this as a young person. Young people are not happy, we are angry, our country is not working.
“You are putting so much focus on Zonal Intervention Project which is next to nothing. If you break it down, the entire zonal intervention budget in this country goes down to is 0.000%.
“Begin to budget money, so that you can begin to monitor and evaluate the project that is being executed in this country.
“Let me say this, Social Investment Program (SIP) in this country. In 2019, the Federal Government budgeted N500billion for Social Investment Programs. In 2020, Federal Goernment budgeted N400billion for SIP, meaning in two years, nearly one trillion naira. Who monitors the activities in this country? Your agency or Ministry have to stand up and do its own constitutional duty”.