By Haruna Salami
Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday interacted with INEC and National Population Commission in respect of complaints the committee has received from different quarters about insufficient funds that have been provided for them in the 2022 appropriation bill.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Barau Jibrin told journalists at the National Assembly of the stand of the Senate that these two institutions need to be properly catered for in terms of their funding.
“We all know the importance of elections in this country. It is the foundation of every democracy. If you don’t get it right in your electoral process, you are in trouble as a nation”.
He said they cannot wait until the problem manifests itself. “That is why we decided to have interaction with them to see where we can do something for them for them to perform optimally.
On National Population Commission, NPC, Barau said, “we all know population census and housing census in every country, the data that will be generated from that exercise to be able to plan as a nation. That has not been done for the past 15 years. We appreciate the fact that the president and indeed the entire executive are determined to conduct the population census and we are all on the same page with the executive arm of government.
“We believe that it is something that will be beneficial to this country”, which is why the committee decided that it should listen and discuss with NPC to hear if there is any problem in terms of their funding.
He said the two institutions discussed with the committee “frankly”.
“What we had today was a robust interaction. We have known their problem and we are going to work on those problems to make sure that they are solved.
On security concerns as it relates to the population census and elections, the Kano lawmaker said he didn’t want to go into the knitty gritty of what is contained in the budget.
“The budget is a very voluminous document, am sure anything that need to be done has been done.
“We have people with integrity, they have done well in the preparation of the budget and am sure all those area of concern have been taken care of.
The committee interacted with INEC and NPC to cross the t’s and dot the i’s so that they don’t produce an Appropriation Act that would be faulty in terms of funding of our elections and population census and housing census. We don’t want anything that will impede them in terms of finance.
However, Barau said the Committee did not discuss with INEC, “direct primary” for political parties contained in the amended Electoral Reform Bill awaiting presidential assent.
He said they only discussed something that has to do with election, which includes sensitive materials, that we will not want to be discussed openly.
“Certain functions of government can’t be done in the open. They said they don’t want everybody to know the time and the type of system and procurement of certain items they are going to use because of security concerns.
“Because they are going to bring ballot papers from somewhere and these criminals, bandits.
“You have seen how INEC facilities were burnt in certain parts of the country. If the criminals understand this is the time you are bringing item A or B that are sensitive, it could bring problem to the entire election. So that is why they don’t want these items open to everyone.
On passage of 2022 budget, he said he has no authority to tell the media whether the budget will be passed this week or not, the senate president will be the one to say that.
According to him, the Committee is still working on the budget, and it is left for one’s “calculations”.
