By Akintunde Ibukunoluwa
The National Assembly has approved N504 billion, out of which N500 billion will be used for palliatives to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. While N2 billion will be for construction of Iyin/Ilawe-Ekiti road, N1 billion for Ijero-Ekiti inner roads and N1 billion for Ado-Ekiti inner roads.
The Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District and the Senate Leader of the 10th Nigerian Senate, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele disclosed this while speaking with journalists at Ikogosi-Ekiti, where he attended the 90th birthday ceremony of Governor Oyebanji’s father.
According to the Senator, “the budget that was passed was an amendment to an earlier supplementary budget passed by the National Assembly in the year 2022 which life was extended till December, 2023 for implementation”.
Bamidele explained that the decision to give the latest approval was to ensure the country is not littered with abandoned projects and solve the challenge of revenue. “Our revenue was trickling, so we have to extend the life of the capital aspect of the Budget to be able to run simultaneously the 2023 budget till December 2023”, he revealed.
Adding that another reason for the approval of the new budget was in response to the request made by the new President, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “The former President, Muhammadu Buhari, signed the supplementary budget for the year 2022 but could not be implemented before he left office”.
In his word, “the new President, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sent a request to both chambers of the National Assembly requesting for re-ordering of the supplementary budget to accommodate his desire to provide palliatives for Nigerians as part of his efforts to cushion the effects of the withdrawal of oil subsidy on Nigerians and correct some other economic measures earlier taken by the previous administration.
Explaining further, Bamidele said, “the President felt he needed to provide palliatives. To do that, two measures were adopted; first was to send a request for approval of the sum of $800 million to the National Assembly. Secondly, President Tinubu considered it necessary to represent the request for a loan which was earlier sought for by the former President Muhammadu Buhari but was turned down by the 9th Senate as it was done few days to the end of his administration. The new loan proposal was therefore said to have been approved.
He revealed that the 10th Senate considered it necessary to de- emphasized some of the projects that were earlier inputted by the former President Muhammadu Buhari to be able to provide a sum of N500 billion from that budget out of the total of N819 billion for the government to provide palliatives for Nigerians.
According to the Senator, part of the provisions made in the newly approved supplementary appropriation is a sum of N2 billion for the construction of the Iyin/Ilawe Ekiti road, aimed at connecting not only the two towns or communities but that of the Ekiti Central Senatorial District with the Ekiti South Senatorial District.
Bamidele expressed optimism that linking the two communities of Iyin and Ilawe Ekiti will help the new Federal College of Education recently sited at Ilawe Ekiti to be more accessible.
The Senate Leader also highlighted other projects approved for Ekiti State by the National Assembly to include the sum of N1billion for the construction some roads within Ado-Ekiti and another sum of N1billion for the construction of roads within Ijero Ekiti.
Senator Bamidele used the opportunity to commend the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji for meeting with all the National Assembly members from Ekiti State and presented the list of projects that are of paramount to his government.