…Allocates N100m twice for captal budget monitoring
NIGERIANS are perpelexed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government allocated 57 percent of the Ministry of Transport’s 2025 budget to the Lagos State green line rail project.
They wonder how the ministry will generate funds to execute numerous other transportation projects in 2025, saying that it is another mark of favouritism for Lagos by President Tinubu.
According to the 2025 budget of the Ministry of Transport, N146.141 billion has been allocated to the rail project from the ministry’s total N256.730 billion budget.
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Curiously, the money will be transferred from the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) to the Ministry of Transport for the project.
MOFI was set up with a view to investing in Nigeria’s future.
The transport ministry’s budget shows that this is the first phase of the project, meaning that there will be other phases in the subsequent budgets.
However, Nigerians are shocked by the fact that the allocation will leave the Ministry of Transport with little funds to work with in 2025, wondering why the money will be taken from the Ministry of Transport’s budget when it is a counterpart funding from MOFI.
“One glaring example is the plan to transfer N146.14 billion to MOFI (Ministry of Finance Incorporated) as counterpart funding for the Lagos Green Line Metro Rail Phase 1. This raises many questions. The proposed allocation for the metro-line within a state is 65% of the capital budget and 57% of the entire budget of the Ministry of Transport,” a public policy analyst, Mr Waziri Adio, wrote on his ThisDay column.
“If this is counterpart funding from a recapitalised MOFI, why is the money coming from the budget of a federal ministry? Why can’t MOFI raise its counterpart funding from the market? How was the decision arrived at that this is a project to invest federal money into and will such facility be available to other states outside of Lagos?” Adio, who is a former executive secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative (NEITI), asked.
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A political analyst, Mr Sam Dede, said this had been the hallmark of President Tinubu’s administration.
“President Tinubu does not hide his favouritism for Lagos. Some say it is the South-West region, but facts show that it is just about him and his Lagos boys. From the Minisiter of Finance to the CBN Governor, down to the Minister of the Blue Economy and the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission CEO, Tinubu is just favouring his dear Lagos and it is not even hidden,” he claimed.
He said this would not bode well for Nigeria as every new president would always work to favour his tribe, community or friends.
Other Budget Anomalies
There are also other anomalies in the Ministry of Transport’s 2025 budget. Under Tinubu’s Minister of Transportation, Mr Sa’idu Alkali, the ministry has budgeted N1 billion for the purchase a Land Cruiser, a Toyota Prado, three 54-seater CNG buses and a pickup van.
While the implementation of the performance management systems costs N150 million, the ministry will burn N40 million on annual press conferences and 70 million on the “digitization of agreements and instruments.”
The ministry will also spend N1.434 billion on “the construction of office accommodation” as well as N100 million for “the minotoring and evaluation of the capital budget implementation of the ministry and its agencies.”
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It will expend N100 million on the “purchase Of sporting equipments, preparation and participation of Federation Of Public Service Games” and another N100 million on the “provision of e-Governace for the budget division of the ministry By the Sector Working Team (SWT).”
The ministry also budgeted another N100 million for the “monitoring and evaluation of capital projects by the ministry,” which is a duplication.
“This, as usual, is repeating the old nonsensical way of duplicating budget items and infusing the budget with items that have no bearing to economic development. I am not suprised because that is just the way here,” said a university teacher in Nigeria’s South-South state of Port Harcourt, Prof Adams Odubola.
Lagos rail system
The Lagos rail projects have been funded by both the Federal Government and the Lagos State government.
The Lagos blue line moves from Okokomaiko to Mile 2 and has served an two million passengers, according to the state government.
Managed by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), the red line is a 37 Kilometer North South rail route, which runs from Agbado in Ogun state to Marina, with 13 stations at Agbado, Iju, Agege, Ikeja, among others.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari had, in 2015, approved $2.4 billion for the construction of Lagos Red line rail project.
The then Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, had said that approving the right of way for the project “had been a problem for about eight years as the Federal Government in the previous administration was foot-dragging.”
