Minister Tasks Media On Budget Accountability, Evidence-based Reporting

Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has urged the media to intensify scrutiny of Nigeria’s budget and to provide the public with the context needed to understand the government’s fiscal choices and development priorities.

Bagudu said journalists should thoroughly investigate budget provisions, promote accountability and facilitate informed public debate rather than draw conclusions without sufficient context.

The minister made the call yesterday in Abuja at the Senate Press Corps Capacity-Building Workshop, organised under the theme, “Leveraging Legislative Oversight and Media Collaboration to Safeguard the National Budget from Unlawful Insertion.”

He said effective scrutiny of the national budget should go beyond identifying controversial provisions to examining the constitutional process, the rationale behind budgetary decisions and the development needs such provisions are intended to address.

According to him, Nigeria’s budget conversation must begin with a fundamental question: “What is the national budget and what should it be?”

Bagudu said Nigeria’s relatively limited fiscal space, compared with its population and development needs, made it necessary to broaden the national conversation on resource mobilisation and the level of public investment required to achieve the country’s development aspirations.

He linked the issue to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the administration’s ambition to build a more prosperous and inclusive economy, noting that Agenda 2050 provides a broader framework for the country’s long-term development decisions.