Nigeria Content Online

Minister of the
Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed has said that ongoing projects
in the city may be abandoned if the government insists on slashing its
budget.

Mr Mohammed said
this on Tuesday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on FCT, to
defend the 2011 appropriation. He complained that the ministry’s 2011
budget was slashed from the N81.8 billion initial proposal to N44.183
million, despite the fact that the 2011 Federal Capital Development
Administration (FCTA) budget proposal was 15 percent less than the 2010
appropriation.

He argued that the N44.183 billion proposed for the FCT is inadequate considering the projects embarked upon by the FCTA.

“There is no
gainsaying that the responsibilities of the FCTA keep increasing
considering the incessant influx of people from within and outside the
country,” he said.

“The ultimate
objective of the FCTA is to develop FCT or Abuja in line with the
master plan, with social amenities that function effectively and
efficiently.

“The sum of
N44.183 billion as proposed by the Budget Office for the FCT is grossly
inadequate to meet the requirement of the FCTA in the year 2011 to
complete its ongoing priority projects.

“This reduction is
going to adversely affect the implementation of many projects such as
the National Assembly complex, which cannot be complete before the new
session and Abuja light rail.

“This programme
has suffered, we have spent N40 billion on it and for us to abandon
this project now will amount to waste,” he added.

Abubakar Sodangi
(PDP Nasarawa State), Chairman of the committee criticised the
allocation of N2 billion to the Abuja light rail project as against the
N6 billion proposed by the FCTA. He said the problem of traffic
congestion in Abuja cannot be solved by piece meal allocation, noting
that government must take the task of decongesting Abuja roads serious.

Mr Sodangi, however
advised the FCTA to create alternative roads from Nasarawa State to the
FCT to ease the traffic on the Abuja-Keffi road, while assuring the
Minister that the Committee will liaise with the Minister of Finance to
address the problem of inadequate budget for the FCTA.