The National Assembly has summoned Senator Abubakar Bagudu, the Budget’s counterpart, and Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy, over the 2025 Budget’s pitiful allocation to the Solid Minerals Sector.
They were called to testify before the Senate and House of Representatives joint committee on Tuesday in order to provide additional information regarding their worries regarding the lack of support for the solid minerals industry, which is thought to be essential to the country’s economic diversification.
The Joint Committee also recommended that Mr. Tanimu Yakubu, the Director-General of the Federation’s Budget Office, be brought before it.
The committee, which was co-chaired by Sen. Ekong Samson and Hon. Gaza Jonathan, spoke after Solid Minerals Minister Mr. Dele Alake addressed lawmakers on Monday, expressing his frustrations over his unsuccessful efforts to enhance the ministry’s budgetary allocations.
Alake bemoaned Nigeria’s persistent missteps in revenue generation by neglecting the development of solid resources, emphasizing that his desperate efforts only yielded an envelope worth N5 billion.
Just so you know, the first envelope we got contained N5 billion. I’m not sure whether you know that. “It was N5 billion,” he told the group.
Alake revealed that he was guaranteed that the allocation would be significantly enhanced to just N9 billion when he upped his pressure on the ministries and the DG budget following President Bola Tinubu’s presentation of the estimates to the National Assembly.
As we were practicing the budget address the night before the president arrived, the Director of Budget entered, and the Minister of Budget and I discussed them with the President. The Permanent Secretary is present.
“What did they do, too? They assured me it will be completed. Thus, after the President’s address the next day, we discovered N9 billion once more,” he said.
“I have videos that I can show you of the various engagements that we had with the relevant budgetary authorities and individuals driving this process, and at every turn we received very positive responses,” he said. “There is no way that I can begin to tell you,” he said.