President approves N60 billion for N’Assembly’s constituency projects

Ogbeh, Adeosun, Mohammed, to address Reps on economy
The House of Representatives yesterday said that President Muhammadu Buhari had okayed an allocation of N60 billion to the entire members of the National Assembly as constituency projects in the 2016 budget.

Spokesperson of the House, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, who briefed reporters yesterday at the National Assembly Complex, said that there was nothing untoward about the gesture from the Executive arm since it was in line with international best practices.

Expressing optimism that the budget would be signed into law next week, he faulted reports in a section of the media credited to a member of the House, Mohammed Bala Farouk (APC: Bida: Niger) that each member of the House of Representatives has been allotted N100 million for constituency projects.

He said aside the fact that no member of the House could attract a constituency project worth N100 million to himself, there was no way such money would have been released to members of the House when the budget is yet to be signed into law.

Farouk expressed shock over the story credited to him, insisting that he was clearly misquoted and misrepresented in the reportage of the interview he granted to an electronic media outfit in Hausa language.

Meanwhile, as part of on-going effort to diversify the economy, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh and four of his colleagues have been slated to address the House of Representatives next week.

Others comprise Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelemah and Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who made this known yesterday at the plenary session, said the aforementioned ministers would take turns to address members of the lower legislative chamber on how they intend to attain the desired goal of diversifying the nation’s economy.

Dogara, who enjoined the lawmakers to brace up for the sessions with questions on the issue that had been agitating their minds, said that the initiative was in line with the legislative agenda of the Eighth House of Representatives.