The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC has flayed the National Assembly for reducing allocation for the Nigerian Maritime University, in Delta state, East-West road and some other key projects.
President of IYC in a statement said the action of the NASS amounted to greed since it jerked up its own allocation in the budget.
The body further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to speedily come up with a supplementary budget to make adequate provision for the projects.
It would be recalled that the federal government included the sum of five billion Naira for the take-off of the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State but was reduced to 3.4 billion Naira by the National Assembly in the budget that was passed. However, the National Assembly increased its own budget by billions of naira.
“We consider the action of the National Assembly as insensitive and retrogressive to the development of the country. It is utter selfishness for the National Assembly to reduce the budget proposal for key developmental initiatives and increase the budget for their personal cost when they are supposed to reduce their recurrent expenses. We condemn this action by the National Assembly. The National Assembly demonstrated selfishness and placed their personal interest over and above the national interest which they were elected to serve.
“Consequently, we call on President Buhari to hasten the process of sending the supplementary budget to the National Assembly which should make adequate financial provision for the East-West Road, the Maritime University, Delta State and other key developmental projects in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country.”, he said.
