N/Assembly Summons Ministers Over Ministry’s N9bn Budget

The National Assembly has summoned the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun and his Budget Planning counterpart, Atiku Bagudu. Also summoned is the Director General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu.

They are to appear before the joint committee of the National Assembly on Solid Minerals to explain why they pegged the 2025 budgetary allocation to the Solid Minierals Ministry at only N9 billion.

The lawmakers wondered if the government was serious about economic diversification and the need to steer the country away from its over dependence on crude oil revenue.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, who appeared before the joint committee on Monday lamented the inadequate allocation to the ministry.

According to him, the initial allocation to the ministry was N5 billion and that he had to fight tooth and nail to get an upward review to N9 billion.

“In fact, to let you know, the envelope we first received was N5 billion. I don’t know if you are aware of that. It was N5 billion,” Alake told the committee.

The minister further told the legislators how he had to call the attention of President Bola Tinubu to the matter before the allocation was even raised to N9 billion despite the fact Edun and Bagudu promised to increase it substantially.

The committee wondered why Alake could not get a bigger budget allocation despite his closeness to the president, to which the minister replied that not everything he discussed with the president about the matter could be made public.

Co chairman of the committee, Senator Ekong Sampson noted that in other countries have harnessed their solid mineral assets with adequate funding to grow their economies.

He said, “We have seen how some economies are being managed. If we don’t invest in solid minerals, how do we diversify our economy?
We have to diversify and we must do it masterfully.

“So, those concerned (Edun, Bagudu, Yakubu) have to appear before the joint committees to give us clear insights on what they intend to do).

Also speaking, Rep Gaza Jonathan told the session that Nigeria appeared unprepared for economic diversification, which he said must come with a robust plan and a budget to accomplish it.

The committees later put on hold the budget defence of the ministry till Tuesday to hear from the invited ministers and the DG, budget office before taking any further decisions.

N/Assembly Summons Ministers Over Ministry’s N9bn Budget is first published on The Whistler Newspaper