The National Assembly Joint Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission has adopted President Muhammadu Buhari’s request of N143bn for the 2019 general elections.
The request was adopted at a closed-door meeting of the committee in Abuja on Monday.
The committee, made up of senators and members of the House of Representatives, agreed with the President during the session which started at about 3.05pm and ended at 3.35pm.
It was gathered that members debated on the practicability of either adopting INEC’s entire budget of N189bn or the N143bn component which the President requested should be vired from some projects in the 2018 budget.
Co-Chairman of the committee, Senator Suleiman Nazif, who briefed reporters after the session said, “The joint committee sat and deliberated (upon) the position (and agreed) to adopt the N143 billion as presented by Mr. President.
“At this point in time, it is also the wish of this committee that INEC represents their budget of N143bn as requested by Mr President.
“So, INEC has an opportunity to reprioritise and this committee will be ready to receive them tomorrow. This committee will be reconvening tomorrow by 1pm so that we can consider the presentation by INEC.”
He asked the members present, “Is that a true reflection of what we discussed at the joint committee?” The members answered “Yes.”
The INEC team is expected to appear before the committee with a revised copy of its budget for consideration.
Recall that the committee had after its meeting on August 17 agreed to reconvene on August 27 to take a position on whether to adopt the entire N189bn as requested by INEC.
Buhari had in a letter to the National Assembly which was read on the floor of the Senate on July 17 requested that the sum of N143bn out of the N189bn requested by INEC should be vired from projects captured in the 2018 Appropriation Act.
He also requested that the balance of N45.6bn should be captured in the 2019 budget.
Members of the committee earlier had difficulty agreeing on whether to consider INEC’s total budget of N189bn or the N143bn fraction that President Muhammadu Buhari in a letter to the National Assembly requested the lawmakers to vire from the already appropriated 2018 budget.
The National Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, had during one of the meetings with the committee explained that the President in his letter to the legislators broke INEC’s budgetary proposal for the 2019 elections into two “by requesting N143bn appropriation for it this year and an additional N45bn for it next year.”
He further explained that for INEC to be on a sound financial footing for the elections, it would appreciate if the entire N189bn to be appropriated for this year.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission has reported that no fewer than 510, 566 Permanent Voter Cards have not been collected in Osun State, three weeks to the governorship poll.
The governorship election will take place on September 22.
According to the report, about 1, 157, 958 persons had collected their cards as of August 24.
The report reads in part, “Total number of PVCs: 1, 668, 524; total number of PVCs collected: 1, 157, 958; total uncollected PVCs: 510, 566; percentage collected: 69.40 per cent; percentage uncollected: 30.60 per cent.”
In the meantime, a former INEC National Commissioner, Prof Lai Olurode, has lamented the difficulty faced by persons trying to register and collect their PVCs.
In an interview with our correspondent on Sunday, the former INEC official said the main cause of the problem was the failure of INEC to effectively decentralise its operations and the lack of patriotism on the part of Nigerians.
Olurode said, “This problem didn’t just start; it has been there for long. It is part of the challenge of the administration of public institutions in this country. It is a kind of reluctance of Nigeria to decentralise. Registration is the simplest thing that anybody can do.
“You should be able to register at any point. Unfortunately, INEC used to have some data zonal centres like in Jigawa and Abeokuta but I don’t know what has happened to them. These places can even be upgraded to produce PVCs.
“Another issue is double registration. What we have seen mostly is duplication of registration. It should be such that the moment you go to register somewhere, it tells you on the spot that you have been registered before and cannot register again.”
Source: Punch
