…Deputy Senate President, Deputy Speaker too
From Sufuyan Ojeifo in Abuja, 12.09.2009

With their spacious and palatial residences in Apo Legislators’ Quarters still in shape, new residences are to be built for all four presiding officers in the National Assembly, this time around, at the high brow Maitama District Extension of Abuja. Reasons were not immediately given by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Senator Adamu Aliero, for the new residences for which N1.5 billion has been earmarked in the 2010 budget for their design and construction. But it was learnt that the move might have been informed by the infiltration of Apo Quarters by other Nigerians who bought houses from senators in the fifth session in the wake of the monetisation exercise. Security in and around the premises of Apo Quarters has consequently become lax as security personnel have been unable to keep a tab on movements of persons in and out of the Quarters. All four presiding officers to benefit from the new residences are the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Repre-sentatives, Deputy Senate Presi-dent and Deputy Speaker. Some of their residences in Apo are currently being rehabilitated. Aliero, who appeared before the Senate Committee on FCT to defend the Ministry’s 2010 budget estimates of N124.110 billion, said that a new residence would also be constructed for the Vice-President. He said that N2 billion had been earmarked for that purpose in the budget. He also unfolded plans to build a five-star hospital in the FCT in conjuction with foreign companies, saying this would help to take care of the high rate of foreign travels for medical attention by public officials. He said that the five-star hospital would be well-equipped with state of the art (“the most advanced level of knowledge and technology currently achieved in any field at any given time”) facilities. He did not disclose how much the construction of the hospital would cost. It is expected that when constructed and operational, it would take pressure off the National Hospital and restore prominent Nigerians’ confidence in the capacity by the National Hospital to deliver efficient healthcare. He pointed out that the FCT administration would soon commence the construction of a hydro power station that would generate 400 megawatts for the residents of the FCT. He said the proposed 400 megawatts would be generated from the Gurara Dam under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) deal, stating that N100 billion had already been spent to pipe water from the Lower Usman Dam to Gurara Dam. Aliero told the Senate Committee: “The 2010 FCT budget proposal of the sum of N124,110 billion as National priority budget looks overambitious when compared with the sum of N66, 650 billion appropriated for fiscal 2009. “However, this phenomenal increase was necessitated by the increasing responsibilities of the FCTA in order to meet the growing demand of the populace to put in place the required infrastructure to make Abuja a world class capital city as well as to actualize the seven-point agenda of Mr. President.” He said the previous FCT administrations were responsible for the stalling of several contracts awarded, especially during the Malam Nasir el-Rufai administration. Aliero claimed that many of the contracts were awarded without engineering design and proper costing. He stated: “Because of lack of engineering design and proper costing, it was discovered that contracts’ variations had to be done and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved variations of 13 of such contracts which are now ongoing.”