There are strong indications that the National Assembly (NASS) is prepared to increase the N47.94 trillion budget for the 2025 fiscal year undergoing its legislative scrutiny.
This followed the requests by several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government as well as the dismay expressed by the lawmakers at the ongoing budget defence sessions.
The National Assembly has been a beehive of activities during the past few days of budget defence by ministers, heads of agencies, with the government officials and lawmakers lamenting poor budgetary allocations to them by the Presidency.
Beginning from the previous week, precisely on January 9, when the minister of environment, Abbas Balarabe Lawal, appeared for the 2025 budget defence, he requested an increased allocation to the ministry in order for it to achieve its mandate.
Lawal said the total sum of N64.25 billion was proposed for the ministry in the 2025 budget out of which N58.65 billion is for capital expenditure while recurrent expenditure is N5.60 billion.
But the ministry and its agencies – the National Park Service, Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON), the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), and the Forest Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) – on Thursday appealed to the House of Representatives to increase their budgetary allocations for 2025.
The permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mahmud Kambari, highlighted the ministry’s achievements but emphasised that inadequate funding remained a critical challenge.
For his part, the conservator-general of the National Park Service, Ibrahim Goni, appealed for a N5.01 billion intervention in 2025 budget to address funding gaps, insecurity, and illegal mining.
Also, the director-general of FRIN, Zacharia Yaduma, requested increased funding, lamenting budgetary constraints and delays in fund disbursement.
Similarly, the minister of state for defence, Dr Bello Matawalle, said the N50.44 billion allocation to the ministry in the budget was insufficient to address the security needs of Nigeria.
He, therefore, called on the House Committee on Defence where he represented the minister of defence, Mohammed Badaru, on a budget defence session, to approve an additional N20 billion to enable the ministry compensate the families of military personnel who lost their lives in active service.
“We need the sum of N20 billion as an additional fund for payment to families of deceased military personnel…the budget of 2025, it is just N50 billion. We have a shortfall of N18 billion from the last year’s budget. And people expect the ministry to do wonders?
“The Ministry of Defence is supposed to provide some equipment for some of the zones but we cannot. Out of what we have in 2024, we can only provide 20 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs). What can 20 APCs do? In Katsina alone, if we have 50 APCs, we can go inside the bush to flush out those criminals,” he said, adding: “within two months, we’ll finish the issue of banditry.”
Consequently, the committee resolved to increase the budgetary allocation of the ministry of defence when it adopted a motion by a member of the panel and deputy House spokesperson, Hon. Philip Agbese (APC, Benue) who commended the military for their efforts in addressing insecurity.
“I am moving the motion before this committee, Mr Chairman, that we should grant explicit approval to the request that he (Matawalle) has made. It is a fact that one time we saw the Honourable Minister and the Chief of Defence Staff leading our troops to the north-west to confront the bandits,” Agbese said.
In another instance, the acting comptroller general of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Sylvester Nwakuche, decried the N13.4 billion capital budget of the service, saying it was inadequate and appealed to the House committee on reformatory institutions to increase it to N70.4 billion.
He said if approved, the N70.4 billion will be used for the installation of modern technology-integrated systems for custodial facilities such as CCTVs, surveillance cameras and accessories in the maximum and minimum security custodial centres nationwide.
“The service will also embark on the general rehabilitation and digitalisation of inmates and personnel activities in the custodial centres nationwide; upgrading and equipping of the service’s seven training institutions for the modern ICT-compliant training centres; purchase of operational vehicles, arms and ammunition; inmate biometric scanners, security gadgets, body cameras, access control and guard tower systems and staff communication gadgets, such as walking talkies,” the CG said.
On its part, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also faulted the N40 billion allocated to it in the 2025 and proposed N126 billion to the NASS joint committee on INEC and Electoral Matters.
The rejection of the N40 billion allocation was made by INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, during a budget defence session before the joint committee recently.
In his presentation to the committee, chaired by Senator Sarafadeen Alli (APC, Oyo South), Prof Yakubu described elections in Nigeria as a huge burden that requires adequate funding.
Legislators Lament Insufficient Allocations
Meanwhile, the National Assembly Joint Committee on Livestock Development has described the N20.8 billion proposed budget for the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development in 2025 as inadequate for its effective take-off.
The government allocated N10 billion for capital expenditure and N10.8 billion for overhead costs in the 2025 budget of the newly created ministry.
But when the minister of livestock development, Idi Maiha, appeared before the committee to defend the ministry’s budget, the lawmakers said the total budgeted sum was insufficient.
The committee asked the minister to harmonise the adequate financial needs and re-present it in the form of supplementary budget, promising him prompt approval.
The chairman, House Committee on Livestock Development, Hon. Wale Raji, while describing the budget allocation as inadequate, said, “There will be need for you to make special presentation on this or necessary come up with supplementary budget that will reflect the hopes of Nigerians. The budget is abysmally low to respond to the yearnings of Nigerians.”
For the chairman, Senate Committee on Livestock Development, Senator Musa Mustapha, the committee “will try our best to see how we can help the ministry achieve its mandate.”
Similarly, the House Committee on Information and National Orientation said the N8.7 billion budgetary allocation for the ministry was grossly inadequate.
The committee which raised the concern when the minister of information and national orientation, Muhammed Idris, appeared before it to defend the ministry’s 2025 budget, rejected the N1.2 billion capital component of the budget for being insufficient.
The chairman of the committee, Hon. Fatoba Olusola (APC-Ekiti State) said the amount allocated to the ministry in 2024 when the national budget was N28.7 trillion was higher than the N8.2 billion allocated in 2025 when the national budget is N47.9 trillion.
He said it was unacceptable for an agency with the responsibility of disseminating information not to get a substantial amount of the budget.
For its part, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, decried the allocation of only N286 million to service Nigeria’s 109 missions abroad. It kicked against the federal government’s envelop budgeting system, stressing that it was not recognised by any law in the country.
The committee’s chairman, Hon. Wole Oke (PDP, Osun). said, “I have not seen anywhere in our laws where envelop budgeting is mentioned.”
He described the budget as too poor for missions that were supposed to mirror the country’s image, saying, “We’re worried that what you submitted to Mr President was not based on needs assessment, and it is at variance with the law.”
We’ve Powers To Increase Appropriation Bill, Lawmakers Assert
Commenting on the development, a member of the House Committee on Appropriation who does not want to be mentioned, said it was within the powers of the lawmakers to increase the budget at the end of defence exercise.
The ranking lawmaker told LEADERSHIP Weekend that apart from appropriations, he is also a member of many committees where requests and suggestions for increase in allocations to some MDAs were made.
He said, “There is going to be an upward review of what was proposed by the Executive arm of government.
“There is nothing too big about that. We have power on the nation’s purse and as a member of the Appropriations Committee for many years, I can tell you what the standing committees are doing with the budget defence sessions, they will submit their reports and from there we will make the final decision.
“From the happenings at the standing committees, many of which I belong to, the requests made by some ministers and chief executives of agencies are genuine and there will be every need to increase where necessary,” he said.
However, both the House spokesperson, Hon. Akin Rotimi, and his deputy, Hon. Agbese, were yet to respond to LEADERSHIP Weekend’s enquiries on the official position of the legislature at the time of this report.
Only Performance Can Justify Fresh Requests – Reps Panel
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education has said only performance should be used to justify demands for more funds by the MDAs in 2025.
The chairman of the committee, Hon. Fuad Kayode Laguda, stated this during a presentation by the executive secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, at the 2025 budget defence session.
Laguda said there was the need for government agencies to judiciously utilise the resources available to them before asking for more, adding that their performance should determine why more resources should be allocated to them.
He said, “Performance is very key. And that is what will help us move forward in 2025. It is an acceptable and known fact that the polytechnics are poorly funded. We know. But we need to justify our need for more and show why we need more. To be honest with ourselves, have we been able to do that? That is what we should answer.
“And if we speak with each other truthfully, we know we are not doing well in that aspect. Not all of us, but most of us are not doing well in that aspect. The whole essence of this committee is to bring out the best in us. And to put corrective measures where it is needed,” he said.
Bugaje had appealed for an increase of its budgetary allocation to recruit more personnel in order to supervise the activities of over 700 Polytechnics and other institutions across the country.
NASS Has Increased Budget In 5 Years
LEADERSHIP Weekend’s investigation showed that in the last five years (2020-2024), the National Assembly has increased budgetary allocations from the estimates submitted by the Executive.
In 2020, the National Assembly increased the budget from the originally submitted figure of N10.33 trillion by former President Muhammadu Buhari to N10.594 trillion which brought an addition of N260 billion.
For the 2021 budget, the National Assembly raised the total estimates from Buhari’s proposed N13.08 trillion to N13.58 trillion, recording over N500 billion increase.
The 2022 budget was also jerked up to N17.12 trillion from the N16.39 trillion proposed by Buhari.
The situation was not different for the 2023 budget which was reviewed upwards from N20.51 trillion to N21.82 trillion, an increase of N1.31 trillion.
In the 2024 budget, the National Assembly increased the N27.5 trillion submitted by President Bola Tinubu to N28.77 trillion with a N1.2 trillion addition.
