• Wade into UNIABUJA varsity crisis
TO ensure probity, the House of Representatives Joint Committee investigating the Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P) has invited the Niger Delta Minister, Godsday Orubebe, to explain his ministry's role in the management of funds accruing to the programme.
In the same vein, the House of Representatives Wednesday resolved to wade into the crisis rocking the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA). Adopting a motion sponsored by Toby Okechukwu (Aninri/Oji River Federal Constituency, Enugu State), the House mandated its Committee on Education to probe the ongoing causes of the crisis.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Yomi Ogunnusi, has faulted the implementation of SURE-P, describing it as a charade. The House ordered the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to appear before it next Tuesday for similar interrogation.
However, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Dakuku Peterside, who disclosed this at a meeting with stakeholders on the programme, assured Nigerians that the National Assembly's inquest into SURE-P would be guided by national interest. The meeting provided fresh perspectives on the activities of the benefiting ministries and agencies.
Works Minister, Mike Onolememen, and Minister of State for Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, spoke on their challenges and constraints in the implementation of programmes in their ministries. In the course of proceedings, the joint committee raised concerns about the award of contracts without due process.
It also frowned at what it called "fragmentation of projects" which, according members, was fast becoming the order of the day, adding that it served nobody's interest and must therefore be addressed in the interest of the people.
Ogunnusi told The Guardian that the idea of re-investing proceeds from the subsidy removal into projects that would impact Nigerians was good, but that the recent allegations during the public hearing by the House Special Joint Committee on SURE-P had highlighted the poor implementation of the exercise.
"There are series of allegations and counter-allegations by members of the House Special Joint Committee on SURE-P, who accused the co-ordinators of SURE-P of duplication of projects already captured in the federal budget, and that the programme has been converted to a re-election campaign organisation for President Goodluck Jonathan," he said.
The committee was also directed to conclude its findings and report back to the House within one week.
Defending his motion earlier, Okechukwu narrated the crises that had bedevilled the university.
"On Monday, February 18, 2013, the students of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), for the third time disrupted the institution's semester examinations scheduled to commence," he said.
"The second semester examinations earlier scheduled to commence on February 11, 2013 was disrupted by a group of persons described as students of the same Faculty of Engineering, University of Abuja."
The Guardian