The Senate Committee on Sports yesterday summoned the Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, to immediately appear before it for failing severally to defend the Ministry’s 2014 budget despite a number of invitations extended to the latter.
The committee also threatened zero allocation for the ministry in 2014 should Abdullahi refuses to honour its summons.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Adamu Gumba, gave the directive yesterday during a session scheduled for the defence of the Sports Ministry’s 2014 budget.
Despite attempts by the Director General of the National Sports Commission, NSC, Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye to persuade the committee to consider the budget presentation and defence, the lawmakers on the committee insisted that without the presence of the Minister, the budget would not be considered, let alone approved, since according to them the minister had been avoiding the committee for the past three years.
Senator Gumba said: “For close to three years now, the Sports Minister has never appeared before this committee either for budget defence or for any other hearing relating to sports development in the country.
Though your submission on why the minister is not here may sound logical but since to us, it has been the habit of the minister not to appear before us, we are not going to listen to any budget presentation from your commission which is even the major responsibility of the minister of sports.
“You said after leaving Ilorin yesterday afternoon, he had gone to Poland for an indoor sports athletic championship which to him is more important than the entire budget of his ministry and parastatal under him for year 2014, he must be here. We are not going to take any budgetary submission from any agency under the ministry without the presence of Bolaji Abdullahi to tell him that we cannot be looked down upon.”
Elegbeleye, in his plea on behalf of the minister, had earlier informed the committee that though he was unaware of the minister’s previous absence but said the minister is not aware of the yesterday’s meeting with the committee.
According to him, the committee invitation letter for the meeting got to both the ministry and the commission on Friday, last week, a day after Abdullahi had already left Ilorin, preparatory to the Monday visit by President Goodluck Jonathan after which he travelled to Poland the same Monday night.
