The National Assembly on Monday summoned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun, and the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, to explain the Federal Government's commitment to diversify the country's economy, overcoming its heavy dependence of gross income.
The Joint Committees on Solid Minerals of the Senate and the House of Representatives, while convening ministers, expressed concern over the negligible funding of the Ministry of Solid Minerals in the 2025 budget.
Edun and Bagudu will appear before the committees on Tuesday accompanied by the Director-General of the Federal Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu.
The committees, jointly chaired by Senator Ekong Samson and Honorable Gaza Jonathan, after Solid Minerals Minister Dele Alake, appeared before lawmakers on Monday to express the frustrations they had faced in fighting hard to increase budget allocations to the ministry without success.
Alake told lawmakers that all his efforts could only get the ministry an initial allocation of N5 billion.
“In fact, just so you know, the envelope we first received was N5 billion. I don't know if you're aware of that. It was N5 billion,” he informed the members.
Alake revealed that when he increased pressure on ministers and the DG budget after President Bola Tinubu presented the estimates to the National Assembly, he was assured that the allocation would be increased substantially to just N9 billion.
“The Permanent Secretary is here and the night before the President came, when we were working on rehearsing the budget speech, the Director of Budget came in and the Budget Minister and I spoke in the presence of the President. And what did they do? They promised that it would be done. So the next day after the president’s presentation, we found N9 billion,” he said.
When asked why his close relationship with President Tinubu did not translate into better funding for his plans for the solid minerals sector, Alake responded that not everything he discussed with the president could be made public.
Alake defended the president, arguing that he was not to blame for the financial challenges the ministry and its plans had suffered.
According to him, Tinubu is passionate about diversifying the economy, making it a cornerstone of his reform agenda.
He added that “many members here have rightly pointed out that yes, my relationship with the President must be taken into account, I agree entirely, but there are several things that cannot be said openly. I cannot openly disclose the conversations I have had with the President on this issue.
“I also want to emphasize, or perhaps remind, distinguished senators and honorable members, that if the President were not in tune or synchronized with our vision, diversifying the economy away from oil would not be a critical part of his Agenda of Hope program renewed. It wouldn't be. “He coined it, he carved it.”
Committee members mostly expressed surprise that a government that was committed to diversifying the economy did not make adequate budgetary provisions for the development of solid materials, one of the most important sectors it could use to rival industry profits. of oil and gas.
In making his remarks, Senator Sampson noted that in other climes, solid mineral development was the mainstay of their economies, as exemplified by the huge annual funding provisions for the sector.
He spoke further: “We have seen how some economies are being managed.
“If we don't invest in solid minerals, how do we diversify our economy? We have to diversify and we must do it masterfully.
“Therefore, the interested parties (Edun, Bagudu, Yakubu) have to appear before the joint committees to give us a clear idea of what they intend to do).”
Also speaking, Honorable Jonathan told the session that Nigeria did not appear to be ready for economic diversification, which he said must be accompanied by a sound plan and budget to achieve it.
Subsequently, the commissions suspended the defense of the ministry's budget until today to listen to the invited ministers and the General Budget Directorate before making new decisions.
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