The joint committee on appropriation, on Thursday, stated that the N500 billion intervention fund in the 2016 budget is not feasible as there is no well outline strategy for its implementation.

This was made known by the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje, while speaking at an interactive session with the Ministry of Budget and Planning, Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Accountant General’s Office and other stakeholders.

“There is no detailed, clear cut structure laid down for implementation of this project because what we have in this budget is N300 billion recurrent and N200 billion capital. We had to push hard yesterday to get some details which were not convincing.”

“For instance, the explanation we got was that N5, 000 would be given to one million Nigerians. Who would choose the one million people, what structures you have in place to make sure that you choose the right people.”

“You want to give money to about one million market women or there about and in my place we do not have many market women. How would they choose the market women that would represent all interests.”

“We have not got clear explanations to these numerous issues surrounding the implementation of this programme. Even the afternoon school feeding contained in the budget is not feasible because some students study under non conducive environment. Will feeding them enhance their learning.”

Sen. Goje further noted that though the National Assembly is in support of the program, however, implementing it in the 2016 Appropriation bill may not be possible. He averred that the funds should be added to the allocations of other ministries like transport, health and power.

“We are all happy with the programme and I am a party man to the core but what needs to be done, needs to be done very well. I think there is a need to do greater work on implementation; otherwise this money will go down the drain.”

“We support this programme; we want Mr President to succeed; we want our party to succeed; we want to continue to win election but we want the programme to be successful. So, we want you to come up with workable implementation strategeies, otherwise there are so many things that require attention in this country.”

“We would rather use this money to solve our problem; use this year to do very sound ground work for implementation so that the programme can take off next year. We believe that N9 billion cannot diversify solid mineral and N43 billion cannot diversify agriculture.”

On his own part, the Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, stated that the special intervention fund was a political promise the Buhari administration was keen on fulfilling.

“You can be sure that before it is rolled out, the National assembly would be consulted,” the minister said.