By Levinus Nwabughiogu
ABUJA – Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola on Friday tendered unreserved apology to members of House of Representatives over his unsavory comments on the assented 2017 budget.
Recall that Fashola was reported as saying that the National Assembly altered his Ministry’s financial estimates and introduced over 100 new projects to the 200 uncomplimented ones inherited from the previous government.
The comment later generated some lingered verbal fisticuffs between the Minister and the National Assembly.
Coming under Matters of Urgent Public Importance at plenary on July 4, Hon. Ibrahim Sadiq from Adamawa State raised the issue on the floor of the House.
The lawmaker regretted that the Minister abandoned the official channels of communication and took to the street to square up against them.
He said: “The Hon of Minister of Works has been talking about the issues that has been rested.
“The Minister is not a spokesperson of an of the judiciary, therefore, he has no powers to speak on an already assented budget.
“The Minister has abandoned official channels of communication to the legislature. This budget has been signed by the Acting President and it has become a law. I pray that this House will summon the Honorable Minister to appear a committee of this House and answer for the bridge and inciting Nigerians.”
Attracting more condemnations from other lawmakers, the House later resolved to invite Fashola for questioning.
Subsequently, the Speaker of the House, Hon. Yakubu Dogara set up a 14 man panel for the task.
Appearing before the panel of the House headed by Hon. Aliyu Madaki (APC, Kano) yesterday, Fashola however said that his statement was only directed to the spokesperson of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas to have possessed “stark and worrisome knowledge of the budget process”, and not the entire House.
Reminded that any statement to Namdas was for the entire House, the Minister expressed regrets, saying he meant no insults on the lawmakers.
He said: “Honourable members, if my statements on the budget have caused any discomfort beyond what I intended to convey, I apologize.
“We’re not fighting. We can disagree to agree. As to whether or not parliament can intervene in the budget process, I have made my position clear. I cannot say that the parliament cannot intervene in the process”.
The Minister however showed displeasure that the slashing of budgetary estimates of his Ministry had affected some road projects in the 2017.
According to him, the reductions affected three priority road projects of the administration.
These included constructions of Second Niger Bridge, Ilorin-Jebba -Mokwa Road and Lagos -Ibadan Expressway.
Fashola hinted that the monetary reductions swiftly prompted threats by two contractors who abandoned the road projects, doubting the possibility of their payment.
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had prioritized the three projects, stressing it was a reason the ministry proposed N31 billion for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
He regretted that the amount was later pruned down to N10 billion during the consideration of the Bill.
Revealing that the threat letters by the contractors were dated June 2, 2017, the Minister added that N13.1 billion debt was still owed on the project.
He however stated that Motorways Assets Ltd, one of the firms handling the Lagos-Ibadan even before the coming of the current administration had in series of meetings with officials of his Ministry indicated interest to finance the road contracts.
Meanwhile, some of the lawmakers had earlier, at the session that lasted about 3 hours, queried why the federal roads that criss-crossed their constituencies were not included in the 2017 appropriation bill.
