Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Jibrin Barau on Wednesday disclosed that the 2022 appropriation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Population Commission are being reconsidered.
He said, the reconsideration followed complaints of inadequate budgetary provision which was far from being having the financial capacity to to carry out their exercises.
INEC shall in 2022, prepare for the 2023 general election and this is even as the National Population Commission would also conduct population census, he ce they needed enough funds to be able to cater for their needs.
Barau said: “We had interaction with INEC and National Population Commission in respect of complaints we had from different quarters about insufficient funds that have been provided for them in the 2022 appropriation bill.
“And because of the stance of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 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.
“So that is why we said let us not
wait until the problem manifest 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.
“And that of NPC, 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 very 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 and we believe that it is something that will be beneficial to this country.”
The Chairman noted that the Committee decided to listen to them because Senate was committed to ensuring that these critical exercises success.
So it was on this note that we decided as a committee that we should listen, discuss with NPC to hear if there is any problem in terms of their funding.
They have told us frankly about their situation and what we had today was a robust interaction. We have known their problem band we are going to work on those problems to make sure that they are solved.
