By Nze Longinus Ezekaudele
The funding for Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/Ancillary roads, East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Express Road, and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project, was reduced by only 1.78 % in the 2018 and cannot stop Buhari from doing the project if he is sincere.
N10 billion allocation to the Second Niger Bridge was only reduced to N9.1billion and the deducted N900million was appropriated to auxiliary roads leading to the Bridge. So, nothing was lost.
Jonathan’s government paid 71% of the total money for the construction of the Second Nigeria Bridge. Jonathan scheduled to commission it in 2017.
About 38% of work was already done by 1stquarter of 2015. But Buhari suspended the works on the bridge for about 32 months.
Buhari’s government refused to release the N12.5 billion provided for the Second Niger Bridge in the 2016 budget and N7.5 billion in the 2017 budget.
Apart from early works done by the Jonathan administration, as of today, there is no existing contract for the Second Niger Bridge in spite of frequent requests from the National Assembly
Even if the National Assembly gives Buhari the entire money in Nigeria, can he complete the Second Niger Bridge between now and May 2019?
Lies about Enugu Airport
Buhari lied that “The provision for Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from 2 billion Naira to 500 million Naira which will further delay the completion of this critical project”.
Whereas the President proposed N2 billion for the construction of an airport terminal in the 2018 budget proposal submitted in November 2017, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika (Buhari’s relation) confirmed that the contractor was paid N1.7 billion of the N2 billion in March from the N2 billion approved by NASS in the 2017 budget. His exact words: “We just last week released N1.7billion to the contractor and hopefully also, within the shortest possible time, we will release another N300million for him so that they can quickly finish the airport terminal.”
In other words, N500 million approved by NASS is a surplus.
So, it is either Buhari was not properly briefed by his incompetent aides, who make terrible factual errors even in statements signed by the President (like the June 12 statement and the ‘I belong to nobody, I belong to everybody plagiarism in his inaugural speech) or it was a deliberate padding, just like the N30 billion Senator Abaribe said was smuggled into the budget without National Assembly’s knowledge. For blowing the whistle on the fraud, Abaribe is cooling his feet in DSS cell.
Anyway, what do you expect from a presidency with the likes of Lauretta Onochie as aides.
Ndigbo Shouldn’t forget so soon that:
In 2015, Buhari told journalists in Washington that “constituencies that gave me 97% [of the vote] cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.”
True to his words, he shared out all his kitchen cabinet positions without remembering the South East. If the constition did not tie his hands, he wouldn’t have appointed a minister from the South East.
He ensured no Igbo was appointed as service chief or head of any security or paramilitary agencies as he handed all, including Minister of Defence to his Hausa/Fulani brothers. No Igbo man sits on the National Security Council. Chai! There is God oo!!!
But for Providence that retained Chief Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President, Buhari ensured that no Igbo is in the top echelon of Government. Nevertheless, Buhari’s government has been intimidating, harassing, smearing, and hell-bent on destroying Ekweremadu, the only eye with which Igbos are seeing at the moment.
Buhari sacked even Ndigbo with legally guaranteed tenures of office in FG agencies and parastatals.
Despite protests by South East lawmakers and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Buhari REFUSED to include Eastern railway Corridor in the Chiene loans for railway construction and modernisation. Yet he included a new railway to Daura and Niger Republic without any economic value. And oil revenues Niger Delta and Igbo land will repay the loans.
Buhari sent pythons to dance in the South East, unleashing tears, sorrows, and blood, while pampering his Fulani militia/herdsmen brethren. Even the IGP and Ministers of Information and Defence have become Myyetti Allah’s spokespersons.
Therefore:
Buhari cannot suddenly claim to love Ndigbo more than our own sons and daughters, who have been speaking up against Buhari’s anti-Igbo policies and sentiments on the floor of the National assembly.
He can’t be more concerned about Enugu Int’l Airport than Ekweremadu and South East Senators whose meeting with Yar’Adua resulted in designating an int’l in the South East.
He can’t love us better than Ekweremadu and Enugu State National Assembly members, who sacrificed N2 billion voted for projects in their constituences in the 2009 budget estimate to mark up the N1 billion proposed by the Ministry of Aviation to ensure that contracts for upgrade that would enable international flights to land in Enugu was awarded.
Buhari, who sent pythons after Ndigbo, cannot care more about us than the South East lawmakers, who met and mandated Senator Abaribe to take Nnamdi Kanu on bail to douse the tension in the South East.
Nze Longinus Ezekaudele writes from Abuja.