- Says ‘I’m Ekiti Assembly Speaker’
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on Tuesday presented N93.456 billion as the state’s 2017 budget and announced that the financial estimates would be focused on mainly the completion of ongoing projects in the state.
Governor Fayose, who, again, lamented the poor state of the Nigerian national economy and the poverty he said this situation had foisted on the Nigerian people, also announced that the budget would accommodate some new projects, saying there would be “massive renovation of primary schools in the state.”
He said, “The policy thrusts of the 2017 budget include but are not limited to completion of the ongoing capital projects that are central to the six cardinal programmes of the government and to improve the level of internally-generated revenue and monitor same for the purpose of blocking all leakages of government revenue.”
He said the government was targeting funds from federal allocation, internally-generated revenue (and from tertiary institutions in the state too), value-added tax, grants, draw-down, loans and other sources to fund the budget.
Fayose described the 2017 budget in which N38billion was earmarked for capital projects, as “a landmark for me as my tenure terminates in October 2018, next year is the last full year that I have to consolidate on the achievements of the past two years.”
The presentation was not devoid of the Fayose drama as he announced to the assembly members and the audience that “we are in a serious war times, that is why I am wearing this military camouflage.”
He also told the assembly members that he was “the speaker of the House of Assembly,” saying Speaker Kola Oluwawole was only representing him in the seat and therefore “cannot do wrong.”
He said: “I am the speaker of Ekiti Assembly. Pastor Oluwawole is representing me on that seat. When there are issues, he is representing me. Bring the issue to the government house for resolution. Therefore, Oluwawole cannot be wrong because he is my voice here. He is the acting speaker while I am the speaker of the House of Assembly.”
On whether his announcement that he was the speaker would not endorse the contention that the House was a “rubber stamp”, he said he had no explanation to make for that, saying, “I don’t have anything to say about that, whether it is sweet to hear or not, because it is my people that are. It is one family and the honourable members in Ekiti know I am the speaker. I have no apologies. Anybody sitting on that seat is representing me. I’m their leader and we are not into a contest of who is the leader or not. That is a phrase to say that we are in harmony, whatever we want to do we discuss it before bringing it to the floor of the house.”
In his address, the Speaker of the Assembly, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, described the 2017 budget as one that would address the six cardinal programmes of Governor Fayose for the state.
Oluwawole held that “Ekiti people will continue to reap maximally the dividends of democracy under the leadership of Dr. Peter Ayodele Fayose,” and noted that “the budget has been structured within the expected revenue profile of the state.”
While assuring that the house would “swing into action on the budget with a view to giving it expeditious consideration and passage into appropriation law,” he explained that the budget was “in line with the sound logic of cutting your coat according to your cloth.”
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