…Senate Steps Down Motion For Wider Consultation

Senators of the Southeast extraction on Thursday protest what they perceive as an unjust imbalance and marginalization in the spending of N380 billion Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund for irrigation that leaves the zone out with ZERO allocation in the 2025 budget.

It took the intervention of the leadership of the Senate to pacify the Southeast senators after a resolution to withdraw the motion and allow wider consultation on the alleged omission , pointing out that it could have been a “honest error” and not a deliberate attempt to exclude the Southeast zone from the infrastructure development plan.

Senator Osita Ngwu saying: “ when will the Southeast have a lion share in any projects …..the southeast cannot be treated the way it has been…….._”

The agitating voice of Senator Osita Ngwu , representing Enugu West rose highest on the day-as senators from the Southeast push for greater stakes in the Nigerian estate.

The Southeast Zone is left out with Zero allocation in a planned government spending of N380 billion on irrigation projects across the country.

The money is part of Federal Government’s strategy to boost agriculture, ensure food security and create jobs in what it calls “ the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund.

Four high ranking senators -including Ngwu in a motion query the arrangement that left the Southeast with nothing while a whopping sum of N66 billion is allocated to the Northwest.

Even when senators including the Deputy Senate President , Barau Jibrin who presided caution that it could have been an “innocent omission”, Ngwu considers it as an expensive omission.

NGWU receives support from Senator Danjuma Goje from Yobe South who had previously raised similar concern about the exclusion of the Northeast in a similar Renewed Hope Development Plan for agriculture.

On the wise counsel of its leadership , the senate subsequently stepped down the motion to allow for wider consultation with the Minister of Water Resources on the matter.