Why I Sponsored Motion to Probe Exclusion of Southeast from N380 billion Irrigation Project- Sen Ken Eze
Senator Kenneth Emeka Eze, the lawmaker representing Ebonyi Central in the Senate has explained that the exclusion of the Southeast geopolitical zone from the implementation of the N380 billion Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund for Food Security and Irrigation Development Projects was “unjustifiable [and] contradicts the spirit of equity, justice and balanced development.”
Senator Eze whose motion of urgent public Importance titled “Urgent Need To Address The Imbalance In The Allocation of The Allocation of The Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund For Irrigation Development Projects In The 2025 Budget” was shutdown at Senate Plenary on Thursday under the guise that the matter was an “ oversight” which the Senate leadership would take up with the Executive arm of the government expressed dismay over the exclusion of the Anambra/Imo River Basin Development Authority, which serves the entire five states of the from the humongous budget proposal aimed at boosting agriculture in the country.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by his Senior Legislative Aide, Mr. Kizito Nwankwo, the Ebonyi Central lawmaker revealed that “there are ongoing and abandoned irrigation projects and dams across the region that would readily benefit from the N380 irrigation development fund, including but not limited to the following: Ozara Okangwu Agribusiness Cluster in Ebonyi state, Ivo Dam Irrigation Project in Enugu state, Item Amagu Ikwo Rice Farm Dam in Ebonyi state, Amauzari Earth Dam in Imo state, Ifite Ogwari/Omor Dam in Anambra state among others,” that were obviously ignored by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation in the implementation of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund For Irrigation Development Projects In The 2025 Budget.
During debate on the motion co-sponsored by Senator Osita Ngwu (Enugu West) Senator (Dr.) Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North) and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin who presided over the plenary said that “ I think its probably an omission,” which according to him is “it’s a wake up call” to the relevant government ministries and agencies. The Deputy Senate President reminded his colleagues that “our President is a listening President” who will not hesitate take action on the issue.
However, despite the attempts of the Deputy Senate President to put down the motion without debate, lawmakers raised serious observations on the omission.
In his contribution, co-sponsor of the motion, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu sought for the amendment of the motion to include dams in Abia State that were not captured in the motion. He said, “in supporting the motion, I’ll add one or two things because my colleague omitted the Uzuakoli/Igbere, Ubugwu and Abam and Arochukwu dam, the dams are there”
Also, the Minority Leader and lawmaker representing Benue South, Senator Abba Moro sought for increment in the amount allocated to the North Central. In his words, “I rise to support this motion and to say that that oversight should be corrected, but at the same time Mr. President, If you look at number 8, you see Upper Niger River Development and then you see North Central/Northwest with a meagre N24 billion, While the combine Hadeija and Jima’re RBDA has N66 billion.”
However, in a twist, the Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), called on his colleagues to look at the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Agenda of President Bola Tinubu holistically noting that in some other areas some regions got more attention than others.
According to the former governor of Kebbi State, “I think we should be very mindful of commenting on the infrastructure development of the renewed hope projects, we should see holistically. This is just a segment of the renewed hope agenda for infrastructure. We have the road infrastructure, we have power infrastructure, we have … of recent, there was a release of over N1.3 trillion and the Southwest has the lion share, and I believe that if you go deep into it if you check it you will see some balancing.”
Senator Osita Ngwu, the lawmaker representing Enugu North in his contribution described the situation as an “expensive omission” that should never have happened. The Enugu lawmaker recounted his ordeal with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources over the abandoned Ivo Dam in Enugu State which according to him has been abandoned for over 12years.
“When will the Southeast even have a lion share in any particular project? If this is an omission, it is an expensive omission. The Southeast cannot be continually treated this way Nigeria is treating the Southeast. Out of the dams listed here, Ivo dam has not been funded in the last 12 years. It has been abandoned by Nigeria in the past 12 years. I have written three letters to the ministry of Water Resources, we have done everything possible to see if they can bring up Ivo dam and here a zone is allocated N66 billion and the entire Southeast allocated zero, what kind of omission is that Mr. President?” the Enugu lawmaker rhetorically queried.
Other lawmakers who contributed to the debate include Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) who called on the managers of the President Bola Tinubu’s programmes to ensure equity and justice in the deployment Nigeria’s national resources.
“ I just to talk generally, this is a very good issue, some of us have been crying of marginalization in several issues, we are the policymakers
“ I want to draw the attention of the makers of the Renewed Hope Agenda to bear in mind that every part of thus country is part of Nigeria and every part of the country deserves infrastructure development, it not wise in allocating resources to sometimes over allocate to one zone at the expense of other zone. The North is completely neglected in terms of road infrastructure, no kobo is being spent in the Northeast. The makers of this agenda should be reminded to bear in mind the diversity and necessity to cover all sections of this country in allocating resources.
In resolving the matter however, the Deputy Senate President announced that the leadership had discussed the matter and resolved to take it up with thebhighest authorities for immediate remediation.
“We have taken it upon ourselves, the leadership will interface with the relevant offices of the executive arm of the government so that we can resolve this issue. It is our government and we have a President that listens to the plight if his people and we have never gone to him fr anything of this kind of thing without getting result immediately. The ministers also listen. We have just consulted we will go ahead and meet with the relevant offices to sort out this matter, what we need is result to see that there is equity in the distribution of the wealth of this country. And we know that the government is doing a lot in this respect, so let us not over-flog this issue,” Senator Jibrin explained.
He thereafter allowed the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele to move a motion urging the Senate to stand down the motion while the Senate leadership interfaces with relevant authorities including President Bola Tinubu and his ministers to ensure that there was immediate correction of the oversight.
Before moving the motion, Senator Bamidele explained, “we heard ourselves very clearly and very loudly as well, we believe that this is an issue that can be debated all day because in every geopolitical zone, that you turn to there would be one issue or the other that they would have wished that work have been handled differently.
“my humble appeal to our colleagues and by way of motion is to handle is to say that we stepdown further consideration of this motion to allow time for the leadership of this Senate to interface with the Hon. Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation. Luckily, the mover of this motion, Senator Engr Kenneth Eze is the one coordinating for us right now the Senate Committee on Water Resources, so he is the Deputy Chairman of the Committee and as far as I am concerned we will also work with him to interface with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and then we will revert back to this Senate.”
The motion was subsequently seconded by the Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro.