Member representing Egor / Kpoba Okha Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Ehizogie Agbonayinma has urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to only sack junior officers for errors in the 2016 Appropriation Bill but also the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma who coordinated the planning.
Hon. Agbonayinma stated this at the PDP Congress in Ikpoba Okha local government area of the state where he said the National Assembly is working with the presidency to ensure the budget is passed on March 17.
The PDP stalwart expressed disappointment at the attempted fraud in the budget and noted that while President Buhari has sacked erring junior officers in the ministry, the Minister in charge of coordinating the budget should also be sacked.
According to him, “Where you are using almost N800.000 million to update a website of the federal ministry of solid minerals, so that for me a monumental fraud and I told my colleague in the house, and that has been rectified now and many other areas where we found so many errors.
“President Buhari has already sacked some people and he has also promised to sack more people but I will say what about that the minister who suppose to be the one to do the right thing. You can’t be sacking junior officers when the head is still there. You must talk to the head that coordinated the budget for the president”, he said.
He continued, “So it is a disgrace to the head of the ministry and it is a disappointment for the nation and I am happy that the president has done the right thing by correcting them. And we must join hands with the president because if everything goes well in Nigeria, all of us will celebrate and rejoice. Only the president can’t solve the problem of Nigeria alone, it will require the effort of every good citizen of the country to move the nation forward so we must join Mr. President to see that Nigeria succeeds”.
“I think the budget will see the light of the day soon and Nigerians will celebrate. A lot of errors did occur; I don’t think it is Mr. President that did it. It is his trusted people and they disappointed him”, he reaffirmed.
He however faulted president Buhari on the payment of N5000 to unemployed Youths in the country which he said he would rather invest in infrastructural development.
He said, “If you look at the budget, the youth are not taking care of and we must put the youth in the budget, we must care for them and at least put the Nigerian first so if you say you don’t have anything for the youth, what are we talking about they are the future of tomorrow. If you don’t create something for them, they will create something for us. If we don’t want to engage them positively, they will engage us negatively. So we must start now by putting the youth first”.
Reacting to the non provision of vehicles for members, Agonayinma who decried the mobility challenges faced by members in the course of discharging their committee and oversight functions effectively said the 8th national Assembly is not under trial as presently projected by some persons
He therefore called for a renewed synergy between the media, judiciary, executive and the national Assembly to move the nation to an enviable height and delivered the dividend of democracy to the Nigeria people.
“We asked the executive to give us car loan and therefore deduct the money as source from our salaries. We have already applied if they cannot buy us vehicle. We are yet to hear from them.
“On the vehicle issue even when the local government elected executives have brand new vehicles, councilors; State Houses of Assembly members have brand new vehicles. Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has about 5- 6 vehicles in their convoys such as Prado, land cruiser Jeeps, Lexus Jeeps, Toyota Camry among others in additions to Hiluxes even their Personal Secretary (PS) have vehicles brand new and now you are talking about members of the National Assembly up to the Speaker and say we should not have vehicles. This is nothing but an agenda to protract us in bad light against Nigerians. It is sad and it is absolutely sad”, he lamented