Senate Gives NNPC, CBN, Others Seven Days to Submit Budgets

• Wants LAUTECH imbroglio resolved

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The Senate wednesday issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and 38 other federal agencies to submit their 2017 budget proposals to the National Assembly for appropriation.

The lawmakers issued the directive to the agencies which also includes the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
This followed a motion sponsored by the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan.

Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, called on the agencies to abide by extant laws and submit their budgets as required.

Presiding, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the lawmakers intend to scrutinise and pass the budgets of the agencies before they embark on their annual recess later this month.

“The budget submission by these agencies must be done within a week, “he said.
The affected agencies include Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), National Maritime Authority (NMA), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerians Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigerians Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Federal Mortgage Bank (FMB) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Meanwhile, the Senate urged the federal government to find immediate solution to the funding crises at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) which has been closed for 10 months.
This followed a motion sponsored by Senator Buhari Abdulfatai (Oyo North) and 40 others who appealed for a swift intervention to save the future of the students.

Abdulfatai lamented that the institution, which used to be considered the best state owned university, now has nothing to its credit, other than the reputation of being the most strike ridden university in the country.

“Worried by the fact that the university is currently in the middle of a strike which has crippled the activities of the university for more than a year due to the inability of the parent states to provide the sum of N4billion to pay the accumulated salaries and arrears of members of staff and thereby leaving over 3,000 members of staff of the university wallowing in economic hardship and poverty.

“Saddened that the careers of over 34,000 students of the university are currently under jeopardy, turning them to social miscreants and leaving the parents who have labored to give their wards quality education languishing in pains and agonies for no fault of theirs,” he added.

The lawmaker called for review of the joint ownership of the institution, owned by Oyo and Osun States, in light of the pathetic management of its affairs by the parent states.