L
LequteMan
Guest
Nigeria's Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has lamented the modifications made to the 2017 budget by the National Assembly.
In a session with newsmen on Thursday, he complained that the lawmakers fiddled too much with the budget for his ministry.
“What I have in my budget now is primary healthcare centres, boreholes,’’ he said.
“That was the meeting we had with the Acting President and that was the reason why the budget was not signed on time.
“We were ask to complete those abandoned projects; the budget of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National Assembly from N31 billion to N10 billion.
“We are owing the contractors about N15 billion and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.
“Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15 billion to N10 billion and about N3 billion or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget.’’
“Everybody is complaining about power supply but they also cut the budget for Manbila power project and the Bodo bridge that connects the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Station was also cut and all these were also discussed.
“If after we have defended the budget and we had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation?’’
In a session with newsmen on Thursday, he complained that the lawmakers fiddled too much with the budget for his ministry.
“What I have in my budget now is primary healthcare centres, boreholes,’’ he said.
“That was the meeting we had with the Acting President and that was the reason why the budget was not signed on time.
“We were ask to complete those abandoned projects; the budget of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National Assembly from N31 billion to N10 billion.
“We are owing the contractors about N15 billion and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.
“Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15 billion to N10 billion and about N3 billion or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget.’’
“Everybody is complaining about power supply but they also cut the budget for Manbila power project and the Bodo bridge that connects the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Station was also cut and all these were also discussed.
“If after we have defended the budget and we had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation?’’
