NEWS
Senate at War over Development Commission Funding Source
By Eze Okechukwu, Abuja
The Senate was at war yesterday resulting in heated arguments over the source of funding for the various Zonal Development Commissions created earlier by both chambers of the National Assembly. This was even as it struck out some provisions of section 23 of their establishment bills, which granted operational immunity to both the Board and Executives of the Commissions.
The imbroglio, occasioned by lack of agreement for a common approval ground for the source of funding for the Commissions by the Senators arose during clause by clause consideration of the South – South Development Commission Establishment bill 2024 in plenary which was used as operational and structural template for the other Commissions.
The Senate Committee on Special Duties, chaired by Kaka Shehu (APC, Borno Central) had earlier in its report recommended 15% of Statutory allocations of member states in a commission should be used to fund the Commission by the Federal Government; a move Senators like Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP, Kebbi North), Wasiu Eshinlokun (APC, Lagos East), Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa West) among others objected to.
In his disapproval speech, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi said that the provision would lead to litigation against the Federal Government by the State Governments as no state would like its statutory allocation to be tampered with in the process of funding a zonal development commission.
“Mr President, Distinguished colleagues, the 15% of statutory allocations of member States recommended for funding of their zonal development commissions would be litigated against by some state governments”, he said.
In a bid to quickly correct the meaning read into the 15% statutory allocation of the State by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi and many other Senators who indicated interest to comment, the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, quickly rose to correct their impression.
Senator Barau in his explanation told the Senate that the 15% Statutory allocation of member states for funding of their zonal development commission would not entail any deduction from their statutory allocation.
“Mr President, Distinguished colleagues, the 15% of Statutory allocation of member states as recommended for funding of Zonal Development Commissions by the Federal Government is not about deduction at all.
“What is recommended as contained in the report presented to us by the Committee on Special Duties and being considered by the Senate now is that 15% of statutory allocation of member states in a zonal development commission would by way of calculation come from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“Each state has monthly statutory allocation, 15 % of which as contained in this report being considered will be calculated by the federal government and removed from the consolidated Revenue Fund for funding of their Development Commission.
Despite Barau’s explanation, many of the Senators still not convinced, indicated their interest to speak but were prevented from doing so by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio who pointed out that the provision was in order as constitutionally supported.
“We don’t need to be debating on whether 15% statutory allocation of member states in a commission would be deducted or not in view of provisions of section 162 ( subsection 4) of 1999 constitution which empowers the National Assembly to appropriate from either the Consolidated Revenue Fund or Federation Account .
“15 % of statutory allocation of member states has been recommended by the Senate and by extension , National Assembly , for funding of their zonal development commission by the federal government, anybody who wants to go to court over that may do so “, he said .
He consequently put the question on adoption of the provision for voice votes to Senators and ruled that the ayes have it.
In his remarks after the passage of the consolidated bills, Akpabio thanked the Senators for spending several hours on final consideration and amendment of the Zonal Development Commission which, according to him, would serve as bedrock for the newly created Ministry of Regional Development.
The bills considered and passed were the South – South Development Commission Establishment Bill 2024, North West Development Commission Act (Amendment) Bill 2024, South East Development Commission Act (Amendment) Bill 2024 apart from the South West Development Commission Establishment Bill 2024 and North Central Development Commission Establishment Bill 2024 earlier passed.
From Ene Asuquo, Calabar
Cross River State Governor, Senator Bassey Otu has proposed the sum of N498bn as the state’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year.Presenting the proposal at the State House of Assembly, Otu attributed N328 billion (66%) to Capital Expenditure and N170bn (34%) to Recurrent Expenditure.
A further breakdown earmarked N100 billion for Infrastructure, N81bn for Education, N25bn for Health, while N20bn was set aside for the Judiciary. ”House of Assembly N18bn, Aviation N16bn, Special Duties/Intergovernmental Affairs N15bn, Power N14 billion, Agriculture N11bn, Tourism N5bn, Science, Technology and Innovation N4.7bn, Women Affairs N3.7bn, Information N3bn, and others N181.6bn,” the Governor revealed.The Governor outlined Federal Allocation, Grants from International Organizations, and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as major revenue sources to fund the 2025 budget.”The 2025 Budget, like the previous year’s budget, is benchmarked on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The decision to continue with the SDG benchmark is to guarantee continuity of projects and programs that may not be completed in this current budget cycle. This necessitated the need to roll over to the 2025 fiscal year.”For this reason, we have deliberately placed emphasis on SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; SDG 4 – Quality Education; SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being; SDG 2 – Zero Hunger; as well as SDG 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions,” Otu stated.He informed Cross Riverians that his administration’s adherence to strict financial prudence had placed the state as the ninth best state out of the 36 states in the 2023 Fiscal Performance Ranking, adding that “These indices have gone to confirm that development is not a linear achievement; rather a multidimensional process, where our progress is not measured solely by economic indicators, but by various dimensions interconnected to contribute to the overall well-being of the citizenry.”While reassuring the citizens that his administration’s policy preferences are meant to snowball into the common good of the people, the Governor also thanked the leadership of the State House of Assembly for building a common consensus among members to cooperate with the Executive and Judiciary Arms of Government to achieve a prosperous Cross River State.
From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri on Thursday presented a total budget of N689,440,348,916.30 christened Budget of Assured Prosperity for the 2025 fiscal year.Diri who made the presentation during plenary of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, said that implementation of the 2025 Budget will require some level of efficiency and synergy in government activities across ministries, departments and agencies.
Giving the expenditure breakdown of the budget in some of the sectors, Governor Diri said the sum of N178, 761,880,407. 32 was budgeted for Works and Infrastructure; Education N47,111,696,198.40 and Sports N37,850,000,000,00.Others are Urban and Housing Development N13,680,000,000.00; Energy and Power N14,450,000,000.00; Agriculture N16,650,000,000.00; Security N19,000,000,000.00; Health N19,194,188,466.00 and Community Development N10,200,000,000.00.The governor also noted that the overall outcome of the 2025 budget will significantly depend on the level of fiscal and recurrent policy coordination, adding that it was the desire of the prosperity government to pursue a robust development as enunciated in the Assured budget.He said, “We have consciously crafted this 2025 budget in such a manner that we are mobilizing funds for human and capital infrastructural development initiatives, covering the seven core areas of the Assured Agenda which are Agricultural rural revolution and blue economy; sports and youths development; security and peace; urban renewal and rural development; robust health care delivery; energy generation; economic growth and tourism; diversified education towards innovation and technology by ensuring that our recurrent expenditure is kept within limits”.Highlighting some of the projects and programmes executed under the 2024 budget of N489,433,632,374.32 an supplementary budget of N270,800,000,000.00, Diri said his administration has embarked on the continuation of the three senatorial roads, construction of internal road in Yenagoa, building of technical colleges in all local government areas, grants to tertiary institutions, economic welfare and wage award for civil servants and training of youths in agriculture for food security.From Jude Dangwam, Jos
The Federal Government was to harmonize disjointed Women programs across the country with coordinating policy that streamline national programs for women from the federal to the state, down to local government areas and the Wards levels across the country.The Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of women Affairs, Amb Gabriel Taminu Aduda said the government through the federal ministry of Women Affairs was determined to have a coordinated policy with a national program that are targeted at Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) in the country to be domesticated across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
Aduda stated this during the ongoing 24th Regular National Delegates Conference of Council of Women held in Jos the Plateau State capital.He said the moves became necessary considering the fact that disjointed programs have over the years not yielded the desired results leaving a large number of women in abject poverty across the nation.The Women Economic Empowerment policy is aimed at focusing on Women in Agriculture, looking at how the policy will support women farmers in gaining access to land and resources to help women improve their agricultural skills and productivity, and set specific programs to expand market access for women in agriculture across the country.He further maintained that the core sectoral interventions in the policy document will covers, “Women in Agriculture, Women in Entrepreneurship, Women in the, Traditional Labour Market, Women in Emerging Industries, Women’s Education and Skill Acquisition”The Permanent Secretary noted that the conference also seeks to find out what are the main challenges states face in domesticating the WEE policy and possibly look at how they can be addressed.The Director, Economic Services Department; Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Blessing Amunike noted that the gathering is to come up with policies that empower Nigerian women through the National Policy on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE).She stressed that the main aim is to have the policy domesticated and implemented in the 36 States of Nigeria and the FCT that will create a series of activities by women at all levels.The founder and Managing Director of Eden Venture Group handling the communication aspect of the WEE policy, Fifehan Osikanlu maintained that through awareness campaign and advocacy on the domestication of the national policy, more women will be strengthen and armed with the requisite knowledge of the policy to make decisions that will impact on their lives directly.”This policy targets gender gaps that prevent women from reaching their full potential, particularly in financial inclusion, education, digital access, and economic participation.”Despite women making up 49.3% of Nigeria’s population, they face significant economic barriers. 70% of women are extremely poor, 45% of women have access to financial services while 56% are men. Women perform 70-80% of agricultural labour, but only 10% own land.”In education, 53% of girls complete secondary school compared to 67% who are boys. While in the digital access space, 34% of women have internet access compared to 54% who are men. The gender wage gap has women in Nigeria earning 45% less than men in similar roles as only 1 in 5 Board Members of Nigerian companies are women.” She lamentedPanelists at the engagement reiterated that the country suffered over the years and in recent times especially in the area of food production because of lack of coordinated policies and programs that will equip women in agriculture, Entrepreneurship among others.
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