Trouble As Calabar-Lagos rail project splits Senate.

Senators from the southern part of Nigeria have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to withhold his assent to the 2016 budget if the Appropriation Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly refuse to include the Calabar-Lagos rail project in the 2016 appropriation bill.

Investigations by The PUNCH on Wednesday revealed that the Presidency had returned the document to the National Assembly, asking the federal parliament to include the project in the 2016 budget already passed but the lawmakers were demanding a supplementary appropriation.

Further checks at the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, revealed on Wednesday that the document, which was returned to the National Assembly on Monday evening, had been withdrawn again by the Budget Office.

A member of staff of the office told one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity that the budget was withdrawn on the orders of the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, on Tuesday.

The Senators had, on Tuesday, vowed not to revisit the budget or include the Lagos-Calabar rail project, threatening to take “necessary action” should Buhari refuse to sign the budget at passed.

But federal parliamentarians from the South-West and South-South geopolitical zones met at their caucus levels on Tuesday night and resolved to resist any attempt to deny their zones the important project.

Investigations by The PUNCH revealed on Wednesday that while the South-South senators met at an undisclosed location outside the National Assembly complex, the South-West senators met at the residence of Senator Gbenga Ashafa.

Senators, who attended the caucus meetings, confided in one of our correspondents that the call for a supplementary budget was an attempt to deny the south an opportunity to enjoy a viable rail project.

Confirming the position of the southern senators in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday, Senator Adesoji Akanbi said the All Progressives Congress caucus in the South-West was solidly behind the position of Ashafa, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, on the issue.

Akanbi added that the signing of the budget without the inclusion of the N60bn Calabar-Lagos rail project would not be in the interest of the people of the South-West.

He said, “Personally, I see no reason why the funds in the Ministry of Transportation should be moved completely to the Ministry of Works for the construction of roads which belong to state governments without engineering design.

“We are seeking the reversal of this decision because the Calabar-Lagos rail project is very viable and it cuts across states in the South-South and South-West and it would galvanise the social and economic activities of the affected regions.

“Apart from this, the project is a joint venture between Nigeria and Japan and it is time-bound. Any attempt to leave it out of the budget this year will affect the execution of the project.”

Akanbi noted that the argument of the appropriation committees that they could not accommodate the Calabar-Lagos rail project because it was not included in the budget presented by Buhari was not tenable because a supplementary provision was supplied.

The Oyo South senator explained that similar situation happened in the committee of solid minerals when the rents on some of the ministry’s properties were omitted in the budget presented.

He said the officials of the ministry were asked re-present a supplementary budget of N5m, which was instantly included by the committee and presented to the appropriation committee and consequently accommodated.

Akanbi said, “The situation is similar to what happened in the committee on Land Transport because the supplementary budget presented by the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, is allowed in the parliamentary process.

“Why should the money in the transportation ministry be moved to the ministry of works and voted for the construction of roads that have no engineering design and does not even belong to the Federal Government?”

A Senator from the South-South, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Calabar-Lagos rail project was as important to the southerners just as the Kano rail project was important to the northerners.

He said, “The Federal Government deliberately wanted the Calabar-Lagos rail project in the budget to balance the northern and southern interests; so, nobody can remove it.”

A senator from the South-South geo-political zone, who did not want to be named because of his position in the upper chamber, also confirmed his caucus meeting on Tuesday evening.

He expressed surprise that the Calabar-Lagos rail project was not in the budget details sent to the executive.

He said, “Being a member of the appropriation committee, I can confirm that the project was in the budget submitted by the committee on land transport for inclusion into the main budget.”

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives initiated moves on Wednesday to resolve the raging controversy surrounding the 2016 Appropriation Bill by delegating the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, to meet with Buhari.

The decision was taken at a two-hour closed-door session presided over by Dogara.

The Speaker spoke on the outcome of the executive session as members reverted to open plenary.

He disclosed that the lawmakers agreed that for the sake of “overriding national interest and the prevailing economic situation” in the country, the House should “re-examine the 2016 budget.”

He added that to achieve this, the House would engage the executive in discussions to ensure that a workable and “implementable” budget was given to Nigerians.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed that the House members indeed delegated the Speaker to meet with the President.

Namdas stated, “We delegated the Speaker to go ahead and engage the executive, identify the areas of concern and report back to the House.

“If the issues of concern are of national interest, we will look at them again by accommodating them in the budget.”

Namdas added that as of Wednesday, the House had yet to receive any official notification from Buhari that he would not sign the N6.06tn budget as already passed by the National Assembly.

He explained that as “a concerned and responsible” legislature, the House felt that it owed Nigerians the duty to state its own position by clarifying that it had not committed any grievous offence.

On the controversial Lagos-Calabar rail line project, Namdas restated the position of the House that the project was not in the corrected version of the budget sent to the National Assembly by Buhari.

He added, “For the Lagos-Calabar rail line, we insist that it was never in the budget. That is not to say that the project is not good.

“If the Minister (of Transportation) said he introduced it at the committee level after the National Assembly had accepted the proposals of Mr. President, we are saying we cannot take a project of such magnitude through the back door.

“That is why we said let Mr. Speaker go to the Presidency to meet with Mr. President so that he can tell us what the real issues are with the budget.”

Buhari is out of the country on an official visit to China.

However, The PUNCH was informed by senior House members that due to the urgency of the matter, Dogara was asked to meet with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who will stand in for Buhari.

One of the members said Osinbajo was in constant touch with Buhari and could easily reach out to him on the resolution of the House to have his position on the budget.

“Osinbajo is standing in for Mr. President. The speaker can meet with him and he will reach out to Buhari. The executive must be having a list of issues it has with the budget by now. So, the speaker will meet with Osinbajo,” the source added.

The PUNCH further gathered that at the closed-door session, angry lawmakers grilled Jibrin, accusing him of hoarding information on the details of the budget from the majority of members.

Members were said to have sought to know why certain zones and states had more road projects than others.

A senior official told The PUNCH that Jibrin spent close to one hour responding to a barrage of questions.

“There is the case of Kano and some North-West states, where funds up to N4bn were allocated to projects.

“Members are mostly unhappy with the handling of the details of the budget, especially his decision to keep them in the dark,” the official stated.

Findings showed that though some lawmakers had earlier canvassed the removal of the Kano State All Progressives Congress lawmaker as the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, the matter was not raised at the executive session.

However, it was learnt that Jibrin was barred from speaking to the public on House matters since he was not the designated spokesman for the House.

Investigations indicated that he was told to refrain from speaking in a manner which suggested that he was giving the official position of the House on the budget.

Namdas said while a chairman could comment on the activities of his committee, the decisions of his committee might not necessarily reflect the final position of the House on such issues.

“The person to give the official position of the House is the spokesperson, which is me, Abdulrazak Namdas,” he added.