Members of the House of Representatives yesterday expressed concern over the flagrant abuse of the Nigerian Constitution on the finding of the activities of Federal Capital Territory which mandated the allocation of 1% of the total national budget to the FCT annually.
The lawmakers expressed the concerns during the 2012/2013 budget defence of the FCT presented by Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed to the House Committee on FCT, headed by Emmanuel Jime.
While considering the budget proposals, the lawmakers emphasised the need for improved budgetary provision for the FCT administration to compllete various ongoing projects acrss the territory.
The House which described as grossly inadequate sum of forty six billion naira approved as spending plan for FCT in 2013 as spelt out by the Budget Office of the Feration, said the N64 billion given to FCT is not up to a percentage of N4.9 trillion submitted last October to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The House while making the call also noted that volume of infrastructural projects of Abuja municipality and its six area councils should be taken as a national priority.
House Committee on FCT said this yesterday when it played host to Senator Bala Mohammed, the FCT Minister during defence of FCT National Priority Proposed Budget for 2013.
Committee members who spoke at the event expressed dismay over attitude of the Federal government through its Budget Office which came out with a budget ceiling of only N50 billion for the Ministry.
They showed concerns that dream of making Abuja an affordable place to all residents might still remain a mirage in view of the current trend which they termed “deliberate limited funding of FCT”.
According to Jerry Manwe (Taraba PDP), a member of the Committee “In view of the fact that FCT hosts almost every important Nigerian including Mr President himself, I suggest that FCT should be given more that N50 billion ceiling, this amount is not elastic and it may hamper its services to its growing population”
On his part, Jagaba Adams Jagaba (PDP Kaduna) who expressed similar fear said “ongoing N13.8 billion Gurara Water project might suffer a major setback under 2013 budget”.
