Senate, N4b First Ladies’ Project

THE Senate in dismissing the N4 billion
that was proposed as First Ladies'
Mission House, a project that Mrs
Patience Jonathan, the President's wife
was promoting, was so polite it missed
an opportunity to make a point the
growing appetite for opportunism.
Mrs Jonathan wanted a facility for
activities of African first ladies. It was
her pet project, a private venture, under
a non-governmental organisation she
runs.
How did the concerns of a private
organisation become an item in the
budget of the Federal Capital Territory,
FCT? What gave the authorities of the
FCT the audacity to imagine they could
expend N4 billion of public funds on a
private facility?
We find the FCT's effrontery terrifying. If
the amount was not big to draw
attention, would it have passed? If it
was concealed on a less prominent
heading would the Senate have noticed?
Who initiated the inclusion of the project
in the budget? Does the Senate not think
it should investigate the attempt to
mismanage public funds?
The proposed N4 billion expenditure
would have been only 1.14 per cent of
the FCT's N350.73bn budget which the
Senate passed, but that is beside the
point. Whether it was N1 or N1 billion,
public funds should be used for public
projects and for the benefit of the
public.
Appropriateness of the proposed
expenditure had been an issue since last
February when the FCT presented the
budget to the National Assembly.
Various civil society groups, political
parties and the public were against the
project. Their argument was simple – it
was a private project.
Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT,
Senator Smart Adeyemi, said "It is
worthy of note that the proposed
appropriation for the construction of
building for the African First Ladies'
Peace Mission house has been
distributed to meet pressing needs in
the area of engineering and satellite
towns." He failed to mention that public
opinion counted in that decision.
Abuja is decaying, but like the President
of the Senate, David Mark said, the
authorities tend to see the dilapidation
in physical terms, not in the lives of
people, especially outside the developed
municipality.
"There is a lot of traffic congestion. The
streets are not being kept in very good
condition; the gardens and the lawns
are not being maintained; I think there
are a lot of areas where the city has to
work very well," Mark said at the
session.
Water, electricity, transportation, roads,
housing, hospitals, schools are in
shambles in FCT, in areas without lawns,
streets or gardens. The saved N4 billion
should be used to improve the lives of
ordinary people. Governments are about
the welfare of the people, ordinary
people too, not just projects.