If there is one thing, President Muhammadu Buhari should be thankful for, it is the fact that he has a strong ally in the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara. Thus far, Dogara, who wasn’t the choice of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has proven to be the rejected stone that became the cornerstone. I have to reiterate that, without the buffer provided for President Buhari by the Speaker on the day he presented the 2018 budget, the discontentment in the House over the implementation level of the 2017 budget would have led to an embarrassing scene.

Members of the House had been asking if it’s really worth their time passing budget after budget and the implementation level remained depressingly low. You have to travel across the country, by road, down south or up north to know why Nigerians are unhappy with hearing huge sums allocated to infrastructure, yet they have to make back-breaking journeys to various destinations. The airports aren’t any better off. Only recently the National Assembly’s joint Committee on Aviation expressed shock on the poor state of our airports, with particular reference to the dilapidated state of the Akanu-Ibiam Airport International Airport, Enugu. In a nutshell, the rich and poor are sick and fed up with being entrapped in the vicious  cycle of the national budget getting passed, the Federal Executive Council announcing the approval of big-ticket projects, the Minister of Finance telling the world she has made the highest percentage of  capital releases, yet, majority of roads are deathtraps, hospitals lack modern equipment and some major projects which have the potential of  triggering a new wave of economic growth remain topics of debate.

The Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos -Ibadan Expressway, probably more than many other projects, tell the sad tale of failure of governance in Nigeria. Both projects are a metaphor of all that is wrong with our country, especially the grave ineptitude of its ruling class, whose outstanding expertise has been the corrupt enrichment of a few to the detriment of the majority.

What hasn’t been said about these two projects? As I mentioned earlier, rather than be a pointer to Nigeria’s development and advancement, big-ticket projects in our country are simply subjects of controversy and reminders of our third world status. The debates over the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Road can leave even the most somber and analytical observer confused. Both projects have a chequered history. But for lack of space, let’s limit the narrative to the most recent episode- the rancorous row between the National Assembly and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, over the 2017 budget. The disagreement between the lawmakers and the minister started with him criticising the National Assembly for slashing N21 billion off the N31 billion vote for the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway and cutting off N5 billion from the Second Niger Bridge. The National Assembly, in response, accused the minister of misleading Nigerians. The House also alleged that Fashola requested for the inclusion of an omnibus allocation of N20 billion to the budget of his ministry without details on what it was meant for. Spokesman of the House,  Abdulrazak Namdas, said some of the project funds Fashola complained lawmakers reduced  and re-allocated weren’t prioritised by him, judging by the budget performance of the ministry in 2016.

Namdas’ statement read in part: “It is very misleading and it’s  calculated mischief to simply say that N5 billion was taken from the Budget for 2nd Niger Bridge. The truth is that in the 2016 Budget, N12 billion was appropriated for the 2nd Niger Bridge and not a kobo was spent by the ministry. The money was returned.  “The ministry could not provide thecCommittees of the National Assembly with evidence of an agreement on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) or a contract for the 2nd Niger Bridge. The National Assembly, in its wisdom decided to fund other projects from the South East, leaving N7 billion for the 2nd Niger Bridge that may yet be unspent”.

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  But in July, members of the House made up with the minister, after they squeezed out an apology from him, when he appeared before the ad-hoc committee which looked into his statements on the 2017 budget. Before Fashola’s half-hearted apology, which was embarrassingly celebrated by certain individuals in the National Assembly, the minister told the committee, the National Assembly was at fault. “During the 2016 budget, N40 billion was appropriated for that road (Lagos-Ibadan Expressway). We released a total of N28.625 billion to the two contractors.  As at the end of the 2016 budget, the total amount of outstanding certificates owed the contractors was N13.1 billion. The proposal for the 2017 budget was N31 billion but the appropriation  was N10 billion”, he said.   It, therefore, didn’t come as a surprise, when on Thursday November 16, a member, Solomon Maren, raised a motion on the  “Need to Investigate The Nature of the Contract or Concession Arrangement on Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway”. Maren representing Mangu/Bokkos Federal Constituency of Plateau State, got the full support of his colleagues even as he argued that the manner of the execution of both projects has not been in accordance with defined methods for executing projects or contracting procedures.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuff  Lasun, presided over plenary that Thursday and even with the flurry of lamentations that came from members, his intervention was the most telling. Members took turns to call on the Federal Government to make a definitive decision on if, the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Road project will be fully funded by government or are to be executed under a concession agreement. But the Deputy Speaker bluntly asked, why, the National Assembly even after two cycles of budgeting hasn’t been able to answer the questions around the pivotal projects. “Why haven’t these questions been answered in the last two years?” he asked.

Lasun brought in the Chairman, Committee on Works, Toby Okechukwu, saying the House broke away from tradition to debate an infrastructure motion because of how strategic both projects are. Okechuwku responded that his committee, having paid special attention to the two projects, believed it had become necessary for government to come up with a framework for their completion, adding that, while the Lagos-Ibadan Road was “supposed to have alternative funding”,  the Federal Government has not made a clear-cut decision on the funding plan for the Second Niger-Bridge.

Gladly, just as some members said during the debate, the 2018 budget is a grand opportunity for the executive and legislature to end the hypocrisy over both projects. Our leaders in both arms should either budget enough money to deliver on these projects or save us the whining. The 2018 Appropriation Bill equally presents an opportunity for Okechukwu, who in other climes won’t be rated highly for leaping in support for Maren’s motion, seemingly in need of prodding. The hardworking lawmaker from the south (where both projects are located) by virtue of being from Enugu State, has chaired the Works Committee long enough to be able to provide effective oversight, -effective oversight meaning the National  Assembly ensuring the executive delivers on (key) projects. As his committee commences work on the 2018 budget, alongside an investigation into both projects as mandated by the House, I urge Mr. Okechukwu to remember the contribution made by his characteristically frank colleague, Mohammed Sani-Abdul, who said as deplorable as the situation is with both projects, the Second Niger Bridge is moribund because of a lack of political will. Sani-Abdul spoke from a position of knowledge, as he is a member of the joint technical committee of the National Assembly on both projects.