Again, Senate refuses to pass budget

Taiwo Adisa and Soji Eze-Fagbemi, Abuja - 07.02.2008

A fresh controversy over allocations for constituency projects has forced the Senate to suspend the passage of the 2008 budget. The upper chamber had said on Tuesday that the budget, which has faced several delays, would be passed on Wednesday.

Senate Spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, told newsmen on Tuesday that the upper chamber was ready to pass the budget into law on Wednesday. He also said the House of Representatives would pass the budget into law on Thursday.

But on Wednesday, no mention was made of the budget passage in the Order Paper but Senator Eze told newsmen again that the budget was delayed by certain technicalities.

He said there were some mix-ups in figures at the level of the committee and that the technicalities would be resolved soon. “If they are through today, we will take the budget on Thursday and if not, we will take it on Tuesday,” Senator Eze said.

Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune, however, revealed that a fresh controversy over the N17 billion constituency projects the legislators were hoping to attract to their constituencies was at the root of the delay.

It was gathered that members of the House of Representatives and the senators could not harmonise the budget particularly as it affected constituency projects.

“We were unable to harmonise some of the figures with members of the House, there are disagreements on the issue of constituency projects,” a source in the Senate said on Wednesday.

It was gathered that senators and members of the House had disagreed on the size of funds that should be allocated to the constituency projects.

While Representatives were insisting on having the same allocation with the senators, the senators were said to have argued that their constituencies were bigger and that the constitutional provision could not be overlooked.