The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, said this at the floor of the senate. He said only 33 out of the 210 ongoing road projects had been provided for. He said: “Only N45bn was released for the works ministry out of
2014 capital appropriation of N98bn. This leaves a balance of N53bn not released as of December 2014.
It is important to emphasize that the performance of the ministry would have been considerably enhanced if the outstanding budgeted funds of N53bn had been released to the ministry. Since 2011, the ministry had always been owed outstanding budgeted funds.
More importantly, if the cumulative outstanding budgeted funds of N203bn for the period spanning 2011 to 2014 had been released, the total indebtedness would have been brought down from N230bn to N27bn”
Most members of the Senate Committee on Works described the budget of the ministry as laughable adding that the budget was very terrible for a sector that needs at least N500bn annually for road construction and maintenance. The Chairman of the committee, Ayogu Eze, said:
“To now be given just N11bn, means the ministry would need a magician to perform wonders. The picture being painted by this budget profile is very grim. We are in a period of crisis which we must all manage very critically.”…… I pray GEJ manages it well b4 his tenure ends in 2019……