The South-south Parliame-ntary Caucus in the House of Representatives yesterday picked holes in the 2009 Appropriation Bill in respect of provisions made for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the newly created Ministry of Niger Delta.

The caucus said the N27 billion proposed for the NDDC was not only grossly inadquate but "difficult in logic, law and comon sense to justify and could not have been based on any intelligible calulation".

The caucus expressed reservations on what it described as the culture of arbitrary allocations to the NDDC without recourse to the Act establishing the commission, arguing that the negative trend had continued to hamper the smooth operations of the NDDC and made it impossible to stimulate meaningful development in the oil rich region.

It therefore demanded an extra-budgetary provision of N500 billion, made up of N300 billion to offset the arrears of statutory allocations owed the NDDC over the last eight years and N200 billion for the newly created Ministry of Niger Delta.

Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Honourable Tunde Akogun, at a news conference organised by the caucus, argued that whereas the funding of the NDDC had been clearly provided for in the enabling law, the Federal Government had consistently flouted the law in terms of budgetary allocations each fiscal year.

Section 14(2) (a) of the NDDC Act stipulates that : "there shall be paid and credited to the fund established under the Act fifteen per cent (15%) of the total monthly statutory allocations due to member states of the commission from the Federation Account, this being the contribution of the Federal Government to the Commission."

Akogun said that the allocation of N27 billion to the NDDC in the 2009 budget was not only grossly inadequate but the least amongst the three institutions that are designed to benefit from Statutory Transfers in the Apropriation Act. According to him, whereas the other two institutions namely, the National Judicial Commission (NJC) and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) had witnessed gradual growth of their allocations since 2005, that of the NDDC had been on the decline.

The caucus said that the correct sum of money due to the NDDC in the 2009 Budget should be N107.4 billion and not the N27 billion allocated to it in the budget estimate curently before the National Assembly. The parliamentary caucus consequently urged President Umaru Musa Yar Adua to live up to his avowed commitment to the rule of law by allowing the law to prevail in terms of statutory transfers to the NDDC.

Other members of the caucus at the news conference included the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Honorable Ita Enang, Chairman, House Committee on Niger Delta, Honourable Nicholas Mutu, Chairman, House Committee on Airforce, and Honourable John Halims Agoda amongst others.

Also yesterday, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, warned that dwindling revenue and declining economic development could pose a serious threat to democracy in Nigeria.

He said unless a solution was found to the declining revenue from oil, the downturn in the economy might soon trigger off an unprecedented competition for scarce goods and services which could in turn degenerate into virtual warfare and undermine current efforts to consolidate democracy in Nigeria.

Bankole, who spoke in Abuja at the opening of National Revenue Summit organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, said that one way to increase the economic pie and enlarge the national cake is to streamline tax regimes and its regulatory institutions so that more revenue would accrue to the government.

Bankole, represented by the House Leader, Hon. Akogun, disclosed that in order to maximise revenues from oil and other extractive resources, the National Assembly had in recent times passed new legislations as proposed by the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and other revenue-generating agencies as well as the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act.

Meanwhile, in a bid to ensure the passage of the 2009 budget this week before it proceeds on Christmas recess, the various committees of the Senate have launched into a series of budget defence sessions with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). All standing committees of the Senate, which are acting as sub-committees of the Appropriation Committee for the purpose of budget processing, had been working round the clock to enable them submit their reports to the Senator Iyiola Omisore-led Appropriation Committee tomorrow.

Feelers from the committees and the Senate leadership point to the determination to pass the budget Thursday before proceeding on recess that same day. The Appropriation Committtees had last week been given up till today (December 16) to present a report on the budget to the Senate. But the process may run into a storm as many legislators are insisting that there must be substantial allocation tied to some infrastructure development in their constituencies.