By DADA AYOKHAI
For the second time in two years, the National Assembly has heavily criticized the Minister of Regional Planning, Hon. Abubakar Momoh, for presenting a lopsided budget for the consideration of the Assembly.
Last year, during the budget defence, Hon. Momoh faced similar condemnation concerning the same issue.
But in a minor cabinet restructuring, President Tinubu renamed the ministry, changing it from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to the Ministry of Regional Planning.
The crux of the dispute between the minister and the committee members revolved around the disproportionate nature of the ministry’s budget, which allocated over eighty per cent of the projects to the Edo North district.
This skewed allocation contradicts the federal character requirements outlined in the country’s constitution.
Facing the backlash from the committee, Hon Momoh also received knocks from various groups, including the Benin National Congress, which accused him of nepotism as well as utterly neglecting the Edo South district in project distribution.
Ironically, despite Edo North being the primary intended beneficiary of these projects, the district did not benefit due to the abysmal execution of the 2024 budget.
In the 2025 budget proposals from the Ministry, the National Assembly again discovered instances of deliberately disproportionate allocation of projects, with approximately seventy per cent of them allocated to the Edo state .
Hon. Momoh, a two-time former member of the House of Representatives, was subsequently questioned on Tuesday when he appeared before the committee alongside his Minister of State, Uba Maigari, for the defence of the ministry’s budget proposal for 2025.
Under intense interrogation, the Committee members accused him of favouritism, asserting that he favoured his home state, Edo State, at the expense of other states in the Niger Delta region.
They also noted with dismay his failure to adhere to the federal character principle in the distribution and allocation of projects under the previous Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
