The South-east caucus in the Senate, on Thursday, complained about the exclusion of the region in infrastructural projects for which the federal government has borrowed $22.7 billion.
The senators took the protest to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
This comes about a week after the Senate approved the foreign loan as requested by President Muhammadu Buhari. The approval was preceded by a heated argument and disagreement among the lawmakers.
However, the South-east senators joined their colleagues to unanimously approve the loan, after a closed-door session of the Senate.
Members of the House of Representatives, however, suspended the consideration of the loan request with no new date set for it.
The leader of the caucus and former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, told journalists “that they have been assured of inclusion in the loan projects.”
He said they believe the matter will either be revisited or since it has not been passed in the House, “the appropriate thing will be done and our people’s fears will be allayed.”
He also said the loan request was approved by the Senate “because many South-east senators were out of the chamber to attend to other important things”.
He was asked why the caucus had resorted to a belated move when it should have had an idea of the content of the proposals since it was once before the Eighth Assembly where many of them served.
The lawmaker noted that the region still has a window through legislative process which would be exploited to address the issue.
“Regrettably last Thursday, the Senate passed a borrowing plan which excluded the whole of South-east. We like to use this opportunity to thank some of our colleagues who were at the chamber like Enyinnaya Abaribe who made spirited efforts to get the matter addressed to see that there is equity distribution.
“Most of us were not in the chamber. I was at an INEC retreat so we want to commend him for what he did and those of our colleagues who were there during the conversation. We met as a caucus of legislators of the South-east last night after consulting with our people and getting their feelings regarding this issue.
“We felt that the best approach was for a constructive engagement with the National Assembly leadership, so this afternoon, we had a very good conversation with both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” he said.
He thanked the leadership for its assurances. Mr Ekweremadu also hoped that what was presented by the federal government “was just a plan and there’s still an opportunity to look at distribution.”
“If we are going to be part and parcel of the payment, it makes every sense that we are going to benefit from the utilisation of those funds. Our concerns about certain facilities within the eastern corridor railway of Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, we are also concerned about the access to the sea for people of the South-east to open seaports in our area. We hope by the time the matter is addressed, the fears of the people will be allayed.”
Another form of ‘exclusion’
The caucus also complained about poor representation of the region in the appointments in the National Assembly institutions.
This complaint, he said, was also laid before the National Assembly leadership.
“The other issue we raised with them is the issue of the distribution at the National Assembly with respect with the bureaucracy. When you look at the bureaucracy the South-east is also excluded in the National Assembly bureaucracy.
“If you look at the Clerk of the National Assembly, the clerk of the Senate, the clerk of the House of Representatives, Head of NILDS and also the chairman and secretary of the National Assembly Service Commission as well as Public Complaint Commission, the South-east is excluded in these places.”
He, however, assured that the ”leadership of the National Assembly” has agreed to address it “as soon as vacancy(ies) occur in the need of those positions.”
