Senators have engaged in a heated argument over the effectiveness of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Housing (RHH) scheme during the budget defence of the Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development.
Tensions flared among members of the Senate Committee on Lands, Housing, and Urban Development on Wednesday, shortly after the Minister of State, Yusuf Abdullahi Gwarzo, presented the ministry’s 2024 budget performance report.
The disagreement highlighted differing opinions on the progress and impact of the RHH scheme, with some lawmakers questioning its implementation and others defending its objectives. The session underscored the growing scrutiny surrounding the housing initiative as part of the administration’s development agenda.
This was after chairman of the committee, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, declared the floor open for members to comment.
Trouble started when legislators openly disagreeing on the implementation of the Renewed Hope Housing project of the Tinubu administration, questioning whether the scheme was reaching ordinary Nigerians, the intended beneficiaries.
The bone of contention was about the feasibility of the project under the management of the ministry.
The session, which focused on the ministry’s 2024 budget, saw some lawmakers asking about the distinction between the RHH project and the National Housing Programme.
While presenting the ministry’s 2024 budget performance, the Minister revealed over ₦6 billion as internally generated revenue. However, he admitted to lawmakers that he was yet to fully understand the distinction between the two housing projects under his purview.
‘I’m yet to understand the difference between the two,’’ he said
The Minister also spoke on the N100 billion 2023 Supplementary budget utilisation.
He noted that ‘’the amount released so far was utilised to pay outstanding certificates of payments owed contractors for projects, such as the Renewed Hope Housing Cities and Estates, completion of the National Housing Programme, construction and rehabilitation of federal secretariats and general improvements of infrastructure across the country.”
Tensions rose when Gwarzo disclosed that over 7,500 housing units were under construction, with 3,000 completed in various regions.
Politics and political differences played out when two senators, Abdul Ningi, PDP, Bauchi, and Jimoh Ibrahim, APC, Ondo South, openly disagreed on the implementation of the Renewed Hope Housing project of the Tinubu administration.
Senator Abdul Ningi said the Minister could not proceed to present figures for the 2025 budget because he had questions to answer on last year’s budget.
According to him, the ministry has a sum of N20 billion unaccounted for in the 2024 estimates. He questioned the geographical spread of the programme being coordinated by the ministry.
Ningi, however, expressed skepticism about the project’s impact and public awareness, prompting a defensive response from another lawmaker.
The confrontation briefly disrupted the session before order was restored.
‘’This is music to our ears,” Ningi declared, expressing disbelief at the ministry’s claims of constructing 7,522 housing units nationwide,
“I’ve been a senator for over a year, and I’ve never seen or heard of these projects in my constituency. Are these housing units a reality for Nigerians or just on paper?” he said
The lawmaker also questioned the ministry’s transparency, insisting that N22.6 billion was unaccounted for from the 2023 supplementary budget. Ningi queried further: “How can we approve the 2025 budget when the 2024 allocations remain unfulfilled?”
He subsequently demanded clarity on project locations and financial accounting.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim challenged him saying “no one could claim not to have heard of or known about the Renewed Hope Housing programme.
“The Renewed Hope Housing programme is duly on course. The programme is fully known to Nigerians.’’
He claimed that the Nigerian government was meant to run the programme through the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and that if it had not got to a state didn’t mean it was selective.
Further advancing reasons for the programme not fully in all states of the federation, Senator Ibrahim said the Nigerian Government’s 2024 budget had six more months to run.
Apparently replying Ningi, Senator Ibrahim said: “You don’t acquire land, do surveys, and build houses in one day. The ministry was granted an extension for capital projects in 2024. Let’s wait before dismissing their efforts.”
Senator Kelvin Chukwu from Ebonyi State who suggested to the committee chairman that the Minister be allowed to answer posers raised by Ninigi before further comment from any other member of the committee, doused the tension.
In his remarks, Senator Seriake Dickson, who cautioned against reading partisan connotations to the concerns raised by Ningi, said there was no presence of the Renewed Hope Housing project in Bayelsa State .
He suggested that the Nigerian government be more concerned with mass rural housing programme, as most of his constituents live in rural areas.
The budget defence was quickly adjourned when the Minister could not differentiate between the Renewed Hope Housing project and the National Housing Programme run by the ministry.
The Minister said he was just two months in office and had not been acquainted with its workings because he was absent from office for four weeks on health ground.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, then said the committee would have preferred the substantive Minister, Mr. Ahmed Kangiwa, who is away in Dubai on the entourage of President Bola Tinubu, to personally present the 2025 budget.
Following the heated exchange, the committee chairman excused Gwarzo, directing him to return on Tuesday to provide detailed information on the impact of the housing initiatives.
‘’This committee will not tolerate half-baked presentations. You must come back on Monday with detailed reports,” Tambuwal warned.
Vanguard