John Ameh
The House
of Representatives on Thursday began an investigation into how a $5m
grant the Federal Government gave to the Lake Chad Basin Commission
during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was spent.
The House
said the money was given to the commission to carry out “feasibility
studies on how to direct rivers to the lake,” but observed that nothing
much was heard of the $5m after it was released.
A member
of the House, Mr. Ahmed Abu, who raised the issue on the floor, did not
specify the period in Obasanjo’s eight-year tenure that the money was
paid.
However,
Abu informed the House that a report of an audit conducted on Lake
Chad by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and
released in October this year, did not reflect how the fund was
utilised.
Abu
recalled that since the commission was established in 1964 with the
“responsibility of planning and regulating the uses of the water and
other natural resources of the conventional basin”, Nigeria had been
funding it to deliver on its mandate.
He gave details of how Nigeria and neighbouring countries were to contribute to the commission’s annual budget.
“The House
is aware that the percentage contribution towards the commission’s
annual budget is 40 per cent by Nigeria; 18 per cent by Libya; 20 per
cent by Cameroon; seven per cent by Niger; 11 per cent by Chad and four
per cent by Central African Republic.
“The House
is informed that the sum of $5m was released by the administration of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the commission for feasibility
studies on how to divert rivers from the Central African Republic to
Lake Chad, which was drying up, in addition to funding the Lake Chad
Basin Commission’s annual budget through the funding formula, to which
Nigeria contributes 40 per cent.”
The House
noted that the lack of attention given to the $5m in the AGF’s report
showed how huge tax payers’ money was committed to many projects but
without the necessary monitoring carried out on them.
“The House
regrets that transaction of this magnitude paid for with tax payers’
money has not been given the due attention it deserves by way of
follow-up,” the resolution added.
The House,
which was presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, directed the
committee to conduct the investigation and produce a report within
eight weeks.
President
Muhammadu Buhari and the Auditor-General of the Federation, Samuel
Ukura, had on October 12, disagreed over the environmental audit report
on the drying up of Lake Chad.
Buhari had
noted that the report did not take into account the feasibility study
conducted by a team under the tenure of Obasanjo, which cost Nigeria
$5m.
But the AGF said that was outside his supervision, saying Lake Chad Basin Commission had that responsibility.
Buhari had
said, “I have to digress here based on personal knowledge of this. I
saw an article in a journal in 1978 that a professor in the University
of London, in 1925, had foreseen what we are just seeing.
“I handed
over the article to Obasanjo and I understand that he took the
initiative sometime ago; it is on record that he is the only Nigerian
that has presided over the country for more than 11 years.
“He gave
$5m for the study, and the study reported that unless some of the rivers
from the Central Africa Republic are diverted to empty into Chad Basin,
Lake Chad will dry up.
“I
understand that this report, which was sponsored by Nigeria, has been
submitted. I am a bit disappointed that in the speech of the
Auditor-General, there was no mention of this report and $5m was given.”
Besides Nigeria, other members of the commission are Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
On Thursday, the Speaker named the members of the committee on constitiution review shortly before the House closed its plenary.
The committee is chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yussuff Lasun.
The
principal officers of the House, including the Majority Leader, Mr. Femi
Gbajabiamila, and zonal/state representatives were among the 47.
It will be
recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan had withheld his
assent to the Fourth Constitution Amendment Bill, passed by the 7th
Assembly earlier in the year on the grounds that some of the provisions
usurped the powers of the Executive arm of government.
For
example, while the 7th Assembly retained the immunity the President and
state governors enjoyed against criminal prosecution, it removed the
immunity in respect of civil cases.
The amendment also empowered the National Assembly to override the President’s veto on bills passed by the former.
Among
others, it endorsed independent candidacy for elections and granted
financial autonomy to local government councils in the country.
The National Assembly also separated the offices of the Minster of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation.
But Jonathan withheld his assent to the bill.
However, the 8th House resolved to re-visit the review of the constitution as one of the key promises of its legislative agenda.
Both the Senate and the House had spent about N1bn on the last exercise, which was not signed by Jonathan.
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