House of Representatives has resolved to appropriate 200 billion naira to the presidency in the 2023 budget for ecological projects in Nigeria.
The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance by a Member from Imo state Mr Henry Nwawuba, adopted by the lawmakers during a plenary session on their resumption from annual recess.
Mr Henry Nwawuba, explained that motion was part of advocacy by the house on the need for strategic planning and funding by the executive to prevent the re occurance of flood and erosion disasters in Nigeria in 2023 and beyond.
The House also urged the executive arm to forward an urgent request of one hundred billion naira or more for supplementary Budget to the National Assembly for Ecological Projects and Intervention programmes.
The lawmakers observed that flooding keeps getting worse annually with damages to lives and property as well as other species, interference with drainages and economic use of lands.
The house however, expressed concern that food inflation, which typically falls during the harvest season, has defied the trend this year, due to the compound effect of flooding and structural bottle necks.
Adopting the motion, the house urged the Federal Government to direct the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and the Office of the Accountant General to immediately release the sum of Five Billion Naira into the already created Special Ecological Fund Account of each States of the Federation and F.C.T, to Mitigate the Effect of flooding.
The house mandated its committee on legislative agenda to coordinate a technical working group between the Executive and Legislature as well as Industrial Experts and stakeholders to articulate an Action Plan to forestall a repeat of such flood and erosion disaster in 2023 and beyond,
COV /TSIBIRI
RN