Governors of the six states of the Northeast have condemned
what they described as low provision for capital projects for the states in the
federal government’s 2021 budget.
The governors, who met in the Adamawa State capital, Yola,
under the North East Governors’ Forum, from Thursday afternoon to around
midnight, said the Federal Government gave to the Northeast region a paltry
0.35 percent of proposed N13.02 trillion for capital projects.
“Forum noted with dismay that despite the challenges of
development, especially the infrastructural deficit in the Northeast, the 2021
proposed budget makes capital provision for only N45.32 billion for capital
projects in the subregion,” the Forum said in a communique read by host Governor
Ahmadu Fintiri during a news briefing a little after midnight of Thursday.
Asserting that such a provision “means that Northeast is
highly shortchanged,” the governors demanded the National Assembly to review
the 2021 budget “in the spirit of equity and inclusion,” and mandated the
Northeast caucus of both the Senate and House of Representatives to take
immediate steps to “redress this imbalance.”
The governors also complained of marginalisation in road
network provision, saying the subregion “has been unfairly treated in the
provision of roads by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.”
According to the communique, the Forum noted with dismay
“the slow or outright nonexistent progress on the pace of the roads already
allocated in the subregion,” and called for immediate reactivation and review
of comatose existing road contracts in the subregion.
The North East Governors’ Forum meeting in Yola, attended by
the host governor and governors of Borno (Forum Chairman), Bauchi and Gombe, as
well as the deputy governors of Taraba and Yobe, also condemned non-provision
for the long designed Mambilla Hydro Project in Taraba State.
According to the communique, “The Forum notes with dismay
the lack of budgetary provision in respect of the Mambilla Hydro Project in the
2021 budgetary proposal and calls on the Federal Government to make the project
a matter of serious priority, resolve all encumbrances around the project and
order action on site.”
The governors, who had during the official opening of the
meeting Thursday afternoon spoke on need for concerted approach to problems
peculiar to the Northeast subregion, announced in their communique that they
had agreed to form the Northeast Council on Education to critically examine the
challenges of education in the subregion and adopt a regional approach towards
transforming the sector.
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