The Federal House of Representatives on Tuesday commenced debate on the general principles of the 2014 Appropriation Bill after adopting the report of its six-man committee on the matter.
Majority Leader, Mulikat Akande-Adeola (PDP-Oyo), who led the debate, urged members to “put individual differences away and look at national interest”>
In a swift reaction, Deputy Minority Leader, Abdurrahman Kawu (APC-Kano) said that proposals in the 2014 appropriation bill were in sharp contrast with the provision of the law.
He said that in spite of promises to devise ways of increasing capital expenditure, the government continues to increase recurrent expenditure, which has little or no impact on the lives of his people in Kano.
According to him, the 2014 appropriation bill tends to cater more to the militants than the country’s national security agencies.
Kawu noted that the N41.08bn total capital budget allocated to the Nigeria Army, Ministry of Defence, Army, Navy, Air Force and Police Formations compared with the N63bn proposed for stipends and allowances of 30,000 Niger Delta militants, reintegration of transformed ex-militants and amnesty programmes.
“We must ensure that we compel all government officials, including ourselves to make sacrifices on behalf of our people who had long been starved of social safety net by reducing the recurrent expenditure and frivolous spending that accompanied this 2014 appropriation bill”, he said. “We must ensure that 2015 politicking does not distract us from playing our oversight role on this budget”.
Also speaking, Rafeeqat Onabamiro (APC-Lagos) said that the allocation to the Military is inadequate considering the current security challenges facing the country.
On his part, Ganiyu Olukolu (APC-Lagos) said that the rate of increase in domestic debt was alarming, and suggested the education of MDAs on Internally Generated Revenue.