THE chairman Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abubakar Kyari says the capital city is still faced with problems of insecurity, waste management and poor streetlights.
Kyari stated this while presenting the report of his committee at the Senate Committee’s presentation of budget report to the appropriations committee on Friday.
He expressed concerns that the FCT Minister, Mohammad Bello may not have legacies to show after serving as the longest FCT Minister due to his pace.
“The FCT Minister at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on FCT pledged to work with us. I told him with the way he is going, he may not have legacies to show after serving as the longest FCT Minister,” Kyari said.
On the revenue drive of the FCT administration and its shrinking budget, he sounded a warning to the Minister to sit down and double his efforts in revenue generation.
“He needs to sit down and double his efforts in revenue generation. Abuja belongs to everybody; Abuja has grown but there is issue of insecurity, waste management and streetlight. He has to be proactive and act fast. This go-slow cannot work for us,” he lamented.
According to him, the FCT budget since 2008 till date has been shrinking, noting that accessing the funds from the approved budget has become a herculean task.
“Budget performance has highly declined,” Kyari said.
Speaking during the presentation, Barau Jibrin, a member of the Appropriations Committee decried the state of the FCT, which he noted deserves more facelifts.
“We are a bit disturbed from the way things are going on in FCT. This is one of the most important symbols of national sovereignty.
“There are certain innovations that can be brought to make the city beautiful, the Jabi Lake mall can be transformed to a tourist centre,” Jibrin said.
“If the Minister would not do it, you (Senator Abubakar Kyari) can do it. Please come up with ideas that can transform FCT to make it more beautiful. We want to see things that will further beautify the city.”
Speaking also, a former minister of FCT and a member of the Appropriations Committee, Adamu Aliero said the budget of FCT had been shrinking because the FCT administration had not taken many opportunities to generate revenue.
“I generated revenue through Pay As You Earn (PAYE) when I served as FCT Minister and same strategy can be implemented by the current FCT Minister,” Aliero said.
“If FCT can concentrate on generating revenue on property tax alone, they won’t need allocation from the federal government.
“They should start collecting property tax. The ideas are there; they should also implement strategies on how to clean the city without outsourcing,” he added.