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‘Senate’ll monitor sector by sector implementation of Rivers 2025 budget’
‘Senate’ll monitor sector by sector implementation of Rivers 2025 budget’

The Senate will monitor sector to sector implementation of 2025 Rivers budget for meaningful development, ensuring transparency, accountability in project execution to drive meaningful growth and progress in the state. Chairman of Senate Ad hoc Committee on Oversight of Rivers Emergency, Sen.Opeyemi Bamidele made the pledge on Thursday in Abuja  at defence of 2025 Budget of Rivers by the Sole Administrator, retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas. He said it was the mandate of the committee to track how allocated resources are utilised project by project, sector by sector. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1718806029429-0'); }); This, he said, was to guarantee transparency, uphold accountability in the use of public funds in the overriding public interest of the people. “This committee carries a continuous oversight responsibility that goes beyond today’s defence session. “As representatives of the Nigerian people, we are not only tasked with evaluating figures, but also with ensuring the faithful implementation of the budget. $(document).ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({})}); livelihoods for the people, this, ultimately, is how we build trust in government and public institutions like ours,” he said. The senate majority leader said the committee must work to restore and strengthen governance through its recommendations and sustained legislative vigilance. Bamidele said the structure of the 2025 Rivers budget clearly showed that more funds were budgeted for capital projects ,saying that N1.72 trillion was budgeted for capital expenditure alone. “This accounts for about 72.43 per cent of the total expenditure, also, a total sum of N408.412 billion is earmarked for recurrent expenditure, invariably accounting for 27.56 per cent of the aggregate spending,” Bamidele said. Bamidele said that the National Assembly was committed to democratic tenets and would ensure governance is preserved, stating that the committee remained committed to national development and institutional integrity. Ibas in his presentation said the overall budget reflects not just fiscal planning, but a strategic repositioning of Rivers for sustainable growth, social cohesion, and a renewed contract between government and its people. $(document).ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({})});

Jun 20, 2025
Govs back FG’s efforts to ease food transport by stopping unauthorised levies, illegal checkpoints
Govs back FG’s efforts to ease food transport by stopping unauthorised levies, illegal checkpoints

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja Governors of the 36 states of the federation under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) have backed the Federal Government’s plans to dismantle unauthorised checkpoints and streamline levies driving food inflation through high transportation. “Illegal levies and poor road conditions are driving up food prices, impacting millions of Nigerians. We recognise the urgency and are committed to working with the Federal Government to dismantle unauthorised checkpoints and streamline levies to ease the movement of goods”, the governors said in a communique issued at the end of the third meeting in the year and signed by the Forum’s chairman and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1718806029429-0'); }); Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, flanked by his counterparts from Anambra, Chukwuma Soludo; Akwa Ibom, Umo Eno; Jigawa, Umar Namadi and Osun, Ademola Adeleke, read the communique. He said the Forum focused on pressing national issues, including food price inflation and the progress of the Nigeria Community Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme. The Forum received a detailed briefing from the National Security Adviser (NSA), alongside the Ministers of Defence, Agriculture, Livestock Development and Transportation. The presentation highlighted the rising cost of food and livestock transportation as a critical concern, attributing the surge to the proliferation of illegal checkpoints, unauthorised taxation and deteriorating infrastructure. $(document).ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({})});

Jun 20, 2025