Reps refuse to hear Ministry of Aviation 2021 budget presentation

The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation on Thursday refused to entertain the Ministry of Aviation 2021 budget presentation.

The Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika and heads of the sector’s agencies had appeared before the lawmakers to present their budget but were not allowed to do so.

The Reps committee led by Nnolim Nnaji rejected to accept the presentation because the Aviation Ministry failed to present their 2021 proposals ahead of the scheduled date for defence.

The rule is for ministries and heads of agencies to lay their proposals some days before the scheduled dates for defences to enable the lawmakers to go through the proposal.

At the meeting on Thursday, Nnaji told Sirika, “Honourable Minister, l don’t know how you expect us to continue this meeting since we just got your 2021 budget proposal this morning despite giving you over a week notice so that we can read through and digest it before today.

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“I am not blaming you for this but l must say that am disappointed in those who ought to have handled this but failed to do their jobs. For us to do a proper job, we need time to read through.”

Nnaji said that the 2021 budget required thorough examination and proper considerations because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the industry.

Further noting that “the #EndSARS protest also hit the industry that was just trying to recover”, Nnaji maintained that the “2021 budget must be such that would help stabilise the industry with the provision of the required critical infrastructures”.

After making his position known, he yielded the floor to his colleagues to make their views known and all of them supported him and rejected Sirika’s presentation.

Meanwhile, after the minister apologised to them and begged them to reschedule the date for the presentation, the committee fixed 11am of Thursday November 12, to entertain the budget presentation.

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