House of Reps, Akpabio disagree over N15b East-West road vote

While the House argued that the N15 billion was too huge for a single project by a ministry that has  many obligations,  Akpabio said it was not, in view of the significance of the road to the Niger Delta Delta region.

The minister was in the House to defend the ministry’s 2021 budget before the Committee on Niger Delta Affairs.

Some committee members had questioned the rationale for setting aside the N15 billion for the road and  the balance of N4 billion for other projects of the ministry.

The lawmakers said the  budget should have been youth-friendly, in view of recent development (#EndSARS) protests by youths  across the country.

But Akpabio justified the allocation on the grounds that he was determined  to deliver a durable road before the end of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2023.

He  said: “I want to deliver a road that will last. You may not like my state, but look at my records. The road I did 13 years ago in my state is still standing. There are  no potholes in any of them.

“ I have a lot hope that I will deliver same in the Niger Delta.We  will provide  you with  the details of the designs. I have not allowed any single variation because I have not seen the kind of quality of work I would have loved to see. There was one that entered into the Federal Executive Council and I had to step it down.

“I have not yet presented a single variation. Let them do the original work so that we see  because this thing has taken too long. From 2006 till date.

“When I was not part of government, I used to think that the road was over-priced. But now, that I’m a part of government, I think it was adequately priced. It’s just that the aggregate has gone up in terms of materials.

“For that road, I think it started with Afri-NEXIM to Africa Development Bank, and tried to go to Sovereign Wealth Fund. But not one Naira was released for that.

“I believe that working together, we can take N15 billion and spread all over and yet we will finish this administration without completing a single road. So, let’s just close our eyes and do something.

“Even the N4 billion you’re talking about, we put some in youths empowerment and skill acquisition. But if there’s any major project that we think we should do, let’s do it, otherwise we will be like NDDC(Niger Delta Development Commission) that has about 12,000 abandoned projects across the  Niger Delta yet they’ve spent trillions.”

But, members of the committee disagreed with him, insisting that the N15 billion  is too much  one project.

Chairman of the committee, Essien Ayi, said:“The East-West Road has been there for over 14 years. We just finished with EndSARS and we know what happened. The whole of my state capital was turned upside down. The kind of devastation that I saw there would have taken us about 10 years back.

“If the budget is youth-oriented, then why are we going to use N15 billion for the East -West Road. I listened to the news where the Senate President(Ahmad Lawan) warned that we should be careful that if this thing resurfaces , it’s going to be very devastating.

“So minister, we have over 300 projects in Niger Delta. So, how are you going to allocate such amount of money to this kind of project? It’s not possible. We will not do it.”

Another member of the committee,   Edim Eta, said, ”If you’re budgeting N15 billion for the Eas-West Road, are you saying that only N4 billion is left  for other Niger Delta projects. I don’t think that’s fair.

“I believe the bulk of the funding that’s coming in 2021 should go to youth programmes.. We all witnessed the EndSARS protests. All these were from frustrations of staying at home due to  ASUU(Academic Staff Union of Universities) strike and unemployment. So how can you say only N4 billion out of the total budget of the Niger Delta will go to other projects.

“Hon. minister, I don’t think that’s a good idea. If the East-West Road has been taken from the Sovereign Wealth Fund, then, the provision for that N15 billion should have been done separately to cover that.”

After more contributions, the committee went into a closed door session. The Nation gathered that Akpabio might   appear before the committee at a later date to offer more explanations on the capital estimates of the ministry.

Akpabio  had after his row with the National Assembly in July  said  that because of the importance of the East-West Road to the economy, the ministry would  work with relevant  agencies to source for funds to complete the project by the end of 2021.

The minister last July   alleged that 60 per cent of NDDC contracts were awarded to National Assembly members.