Senate decries SGF’s absence at budget meeting

Tinubu laments N1.5b owed women

THE Senate Committee on Federal Character Affairs yesterday expressed disgust over the absence of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, from a meeting convened to deliberate on the budget for key parastatals under the purview of the SGF.

In another development‎, Chairman, Senate Committee on Women Affairs, Oluremi Tinubu, yesterday asked the Women Affairs and Social Development Ministry to ensure immediate completion of 73 women acquisition centres scattered in parts of the country.

Tinubu, who gave the directive at a budget defence session with the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Al-Hassan in Abuja, described the Women Affairs Ministry as a ministry close to her heart. She, therefore, urged every Nigerian woman to show interest in the affairs of the ministry.

She lamented that a situation where only three out of the 75 acquisition centres were completed does not speak well of the ministry. On the N1.5 billion owed the National Centre for Women Development, she said that the fund was discovered in the budget of the Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources and Youth and Sports.

The committee, which walked out the Permanent Secretary in charge of General Services, Yahaya Bukar, who had appeared before the committee to represent the SGF, also sent out some officers of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) who had equally been at the meeting to represent the Corps Marshal.
‎
Chairman of the committee, Tijjani Yahaya Kaura, alongside members of the panel who were angered by the absence of Lawal and FRSC boss, Boboye Oyeyemi, described their failure to appear before the committee as unacceptable.

According to him, the budget defence of their respective establishments before the committee was all too important to be treated with levity.

The lawmaker, therefore, threatened that until the SGF and FRSC boss appear to defend the 2016‎ budget proposal of their establishments, the committee on its part would not subject their estimates to consideration.

Kaura said: “‎I cannot understand why the SGF and the head of the FRSC failed to show up to defend their budget. That is not acceptable because the budget defence is something that should be taken seriously.

“Until they are prepared to appear themselves to defend their budgets for this year, I’m sorry to say that this committee would not entertain representatives.”