Should the National Assembly pass the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) budget of N453.2 billion for a sole administrator not recognised by law to implement, Senator Seriake Dickson Monday asked his colleagues as the lawmakers approved the whopping budget for the commission with no board.
Well, because the Senate finds itself between the devil and deep blue sea on the matter, it has opted for the sea: it has passed the budget and will deal with issues that arise later.
Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, said the lawmakers will continue to put pressure on the Executive to ensure that a proper board is put in place and the NDDC Act is fully complied with..
“We have been engaging with the Executive arm of government that the nominations into the Governing Board should be made. We have been making that point and will continue to push until it is made.
“I think we are getting there, so even if we don’t take any motion, I’m sure the explanations you have given will go a long way.
“I don’t think the Sole Administrator should be there for any long period of time, but it is for us to ensure that between now and when that administrator goes, the funds appropriated are properly utilized…
“Of course, we suspended any interaction with the IMC (Interim Management Committe), of course the IMC is out of the way now, so we are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea on one hand and we have admitted that much, we have the people of the Niger Delta with all the challenges there”, Lawan said.
Contributing to the debate prelude to the passage of the budget, Dickson noted that there is no board in place adding that the office of Sole Administrator was unknown to the NDDC law.
He however conceded that the budget has to be passed into law for the sake of the people.
He adds: “Secondly, arising from number one there is no indication as to how soon the President will exercise his power under the NDDC act in making the recommendation, he has the power to appoint, there is no indication.
“There is no indication whether this budget that we are now being told to pass will be the one that will be implemented by this sole administrator, unknown to the laws of this country, unknown to the NDDC act and unknown to this Senate and yet we are made to consider and pass this budget.”
“We will need to add a caveat that when this budget is passed, it should not be implemented beyond the normal recurrent expences until the NDDC act is complied with.
“We would not want a situation where we pass this budget then one sole administrator unknown to the law, unknown to even the Senate, someone whose capacity you cannot access will do whatever his likes.
“You cannot hold him responsible now because he is not part of the creation of the law of the country.
“We should add a caveat that the capital component of this budget should not be implemented by this sole administrator it should be done by the board properly constituted according to law.”
“The National Assembly more than any other institution has a duty to guard and guide the independence of the operation of the NDDC act you have done.
“I say so because when I was Governor of Bayelsa as Chairman of the Governors of the South-South Forum, we met with the President and supported the need for the forensic audit for the effective operation of the NDDC board.
“Now we have a situation where instead of composition of the board as stipulated by the Act, what was put in place was an illegal interim management committee and that is why I am thanking the President by extension the National Assembly for doing what is right
“As a matter of fact if you want to carry out a proper audit, forensic or otherwise, you set out the board for them to do what they have to do as it is happening with any other institution but for that if the NDDC things are left the way they are.
“All the government structures and mechanism put inplace by the act are nonexistent, they don’t have a governing board made up of the Governors and officials at the federal level, they have a board sitting on it and now the IMC has gone but in its place what do we have?
“You have another illegality replacing an earlier illegality for which the Senate and the National Assembly courageously took the position you have taken.
“So why we are now presented by this situation we are considering a budget, a budget to be implemented not by the IMC which has at least 3 persons.
“This budget we are now considering, if passed is to be implemented by rather another unknown entity called a sole administrator.
“Instead of an IMC that had three persons or more to manage the budget you now have an illegal entity known as a sole administrator to manage this budget.”
“We are all aware of the blackmail as we watched from outside that you had to face.”
“I want to use this opportunity to register our appreciation for the commitment and patriotism displayed by the leadership of both chambers of the national assembly at a time they overruled the president on the content and the funding dynamics and structure of the commission.
“As a result of that courage, the president you were part of that national Assembly that did that for this country and for the Niger Delta region when political carriers were sacrificed.
The senate President said it is true the sole administrator is not known to the law just like the IMC.
“On another hand we have a sole administrator who is unknown to the law. My opinion about this thing first is the people themselves and I don’t think it will serve the people any good to say that we stop the implementation of the capital budget because that is what is meant for the people.
“The recurrent is what the people at the headquarters and the civil servants would just be using. So if we say there should be no implementation of the capital then the people will remain unattended to and unfairly treated in my opinion
“So I believe we need to balance this. We task our committee on NDDC to ensure that every kobo is prudently and economically applied. “Secondly we have been engaging with the executive arm of Government for the nominations to be made for the governing board.
“I think we have to approach it in this manner so that the people don’t lose because of the politics that is going on. I want to assure you we will not rest on our oars until we get the proper thing done.
“This senate has done the kind of thing it was supposed to do in the engagement throughout this period till this time.”
Recall that on the same Monday, the Senate approved the sum of N453.2 billion as annual budget to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for the 2020 fiscal year.
This was just as the upper chamber approved a recommendation by the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta for an extension of the budget implementation timeline to 31st March, 2021.
The approval followed consideration of a report by the Committee on Niger Delta.
On revenue projection of the Commission, the lawmaker said the Committee adopted N63,506,151,945 as reflected in the Appropriations Act, 2020.
He added that the sum of N100 billion naira reflected as unpaid arrears by the Federal Government was not considered as part of the Commission’s revenue projection by the Committee because the amount was not approved in the 2020 Appropriations Act by the National Assembly.
Nwaoboshi stated further that against the backdrop of projection by the NDDC on revenue inflow from oil companies/NLNG and others, the Committee adopted the submission of the Commission on Personnel Expenditure of N27,389,000,000; N13,937,244,107 as Overhead Expenditure; N2,793,755,893 Internal Capital; and N409,080,000,000 for Development Projects