Senate stops N4bn first ladies'mission house project

The Senate on Wednesday dropped the
controversial African First Ladies' Peace
Mission House project when it passed the
N259.65bn budget of the Federal Capital
Territory for the 2013 fiscal year
without approving the N4bn appropriated
for it.

In February when the budget proposal was
brought to the National Assembly, it
contained N4bn vote for the construction
of the mission house in Abuja, a
development that attracted a lot of
criticisms from members of the public.
The Senate, during the second reading of
the bill, questioned the rationale of
committing scarce resources to prosecute
a less important structure.
Civil rights groups and political parties
had also berated the Federal Capital
Territory Administration for budgeting
N4bn for the construction of the building
for a non-governmental body headed by the
wife of the President, Mrs. Patience
Jonathan.
They had contended that since the Federal
Government had earlier declared the
mission as a non-governmental
organisation, it would be inappropriate
for the same government to spend public
funds on it.
Presenting the budget report on
Wednesday, the Chairman, Senate Committee
on FCT, Senator Smart Adeyemi, said, “It
is worthy of note that the proposed
appropriation for the construction of
building for the African First Ladies'
Peace Mission has been distributed to
meet pressing needs in the area of
engineering and satellite towns.”
A breakdown of the budget showed that
N48.03bn was approved for personnel
matters; N49.5bn for overhead; N97.54bn
for recurrent expenditure; and N155.66bn
as capital expenditure.
Adeyemi said the budget was predicated on
a projected revenue of N259.698bn with a
fiscal surplus of N645,666.
He also said that in carrying out its
oversight duties, the committee
identified critical areas of need for the
development of the territory and to
ensure improved standard of living for
its inhabitants.
“Therefore, the committee jostled with
the budget estimates, deploying funds to
meet areas of critical needs like roads,
water, health, education and development
of satellite towns within the territory,
city maintenance and cleaning,
recreational facilities, construction of
rehabilitation centres, agriculture,
transportation, security services and
rehabilitation of the ECOWAS Parliament
Building,” he said.
After passing the budget, the President
of the Senate, David Mark, called on the
committee to rise up to its
responsibility by discharging its
oversight functions effectively.
He said the city was dilapidating and
receding in its development with traffic
congestion and ill maintained streets and
gardens depicting the decay.
Mark said, “There is a lot of traffic
congestion. The streets are not being
kept in very good condition; the gardens
and the lawns are not being maintained; I
think there are a lot of areas where the
city has to work very well.
“This is where we have to implore your
oversight functions. It is our
responsibility to ensure that things work
properly.”