The National Assembly has summoned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy, Wale Edun, and the Budget Minister, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, to appear before a joint committee over concerns about the paltry allocation to the Solid Minerals Sector in the 2025 Budget.
The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Tanimu Yakubu, has also been summoned to provide further clarification on the allocation.
The joint committee, chaired by Sen. Ekong Samson and Hon Gaza Jonathan, made the decision on Monday after the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr Dele Alake, expressed his frustration over the inadequate funding of the sector.
“In fact, to let you know, the envelope we first received was N5 billion. I don’t know if you are aware of that. It was N5 billion,” the minister informed the members of the committee.
Alake revealed that he had several engagements with the relevant budgetary authorities, including the Minister of Budget and the Director of Budget to get an increased allocation, but his efforts were not successful.
“The Permanent Secretary is here and the night before the president came here, when we were working on the rehearsal of the budget speech, the Director of Budget came in and the Minister of Budget and I took them up in the presence of the President.
“And what did they do? They promised that it would be done. So, again the following day, after the President’s presentation, we found N9billion”, he stated.
“There is no way that I can begin to tell you, except I have videos that I can show you of the several engagements that we had with the relevant budgetary authorities and individuals driving this process and at every turn we received very positive responses,” he stated.
(Politics Nigeria)