By Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
Indications have emerged that nine federal government’s agencies have been penciled to get zero budgetary allocation in the 2017 budget from the House of Representatives over “habitual and blatant disregard” of its resolutions.
The nine agencies include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
Others are the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) Federal Housing Authority (FHA), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Bank of Agriculture (BOA).
The leadership of the House had earlier in the year, expressed displeasure over the “manner in which government agencies treat its resolutions” and directed its legislative compliance committee, led by Hon. Olasupo Abiodun Adeola to liaise with the Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to ensure compliance with the resolutions.
In a letter dated February 13, 2017, Adeola listed the nine agencies as those “habitually and blatantly disregarding House resolutions,” urging it to take decisive action, especially in the face of the ongoing budgeting process.
According to the lawmaker, in the letter addressed to Speaker Yakubu Dogara and copied his Deputy, Yussuff Lasun and relevant committee leaders, the House directed NIMASA, FRSC, FHA, INEC, NHIS, BOA and NEPC to reinstate some of their sacked staff that petitioned the lower chamber on their disengagement, but regretted that “none of them complied with the resolutions”.
The letter indicated that only FAAN informed the committee that the House resolution was receiving management attention, while BOA “claimed to have reinstated only drivers and cleaners”, which fell far short of the House’s resolutions, while the others were accused of total disregard to the resolutions.
