Following an allegation by the chairman, Northern Senators’ Forum, Abdul Ningi, that Senate President Godswill Akpabio inserted projects worth N3 trillion in the 2024 budget, analysis of public records as regarding the budget passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on Saturday, December 30, 2023, has contradicted the senators’ claim.
Ningi, had in a BBC Hausa interview, said the budget in operation is different from what the Parliament passed in December last year, adding that senators had engaged a consultant to investigate the padding of the budget.
Ningi’s claims have, however, divided Northern senators, with fellow senators berating Ningi for his accusation, which they said were baseless.
According to the constitution of Nigeria, the National Assembly comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The president presents his budget packages to the National Assembly at a joint meeting of the two houses. This meeting is known as the budget session. It is up to the National Assembly to approve, modify or reject the Bill.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the National Assembly raised the appropriation bill from N27.5 trillion presented by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, November 29th to N28.7 trillion. President Bola Tinubu signed the N28. 7 trillion 2024 appropriation bill into law on Monday, January 1, 2024 at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Speaking after signing the document, the president said the implementation of the budget would be “efficiently pursued and vigorously monitored”. Some of the key estimates are capital expenditure, N10 trillion; recurrent expenditure, N8.8 trillion; debt service, N8.2 trillion, and statutory transfers, N1.7 trillion.
Some of the senators who spoke on confidentiality said what Ningi did was self-indictment.
“Who prepared the budget? All the committees were the ones that prepared the budget. Our own is to compile the budget. Our mandate did not say, make sure that the North got equal amount with the South. No. So what are they talking about? It’s self-indictment. Who passed the budget?” a northern Senator who is a member of the appropriation committee said.
According to him, of the lawmakers in the appropriation committee, those of northern extraction are more than those from the southern part of the country.
“Who is the budget minister? Is he not from the North? Atiku Bagudu is from the North and he is the minister of budget. The minister of finance is from Lagos put he does not prepare the budget. He executes the budget. Who prepared the budget? Who gives each MDA a ceiling? Then in the budget team, the southerners are in the minority – the two committees in the Senate and in the House of Representatives,” another Senator not happy with Ningi’s claims said.
“The chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation is from North West and the buck stops there. Solomon Adeola is the chairman of Appropriation Committee and he is from Southwest, but he did not prepare the budget.
“Now I’m hearing another story. The chairman in the House says if you total the budget, the North has more than the South. So you see, it has now become an argument and I don’t want to start talking to you without facts,” the lawmaker said.
“Last time, you remember, they said that the capital allocation has been skewed to the South; that out of the N15 trillion, they gave a breakdown and one of us, Aliyu Wadada to be specific, Kawu Samaila and others brought it out and it was in the media.
“But the total capital allocation then was N9.9 trillion. And the so-called figures that they threw up there is N15 trillion. So how does that add up? If you say that the South has taken more, and the whole capital budget is N9.9 trillion, and you are saying the capital budget is N15 trillion, where did they get the N6 trillion? That was how the matter died down.
“Now, they said they have a document and they employed a consultant. And that the consultant said that the budget is skewed. And that the budget is actually N25 trillion. Now who are you indicting? So it means the National Assembly padded the budget with N3 trillion. Who added the N3 trillion?
“Not only Ningi, the members of the caucus or senators from the north are more than the number of senators from the south. They are just trying to indict us,” the lawmaker said.
Another lawmaker who was also privy of an earlier meeting with the Senate President, said some of them jettisoned the meeting because it lacked facts.
Presidency Dismisses Ningi’s Allegation
Meanwhile, the presidency has refuted claims by Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) that President Bola Tinubu is implementing two versions of the 2024 budget.
In a press statement issued by the special adviser information and strategy to the president, Bayo Onanuga , on Sunday he described Senator Ningi’s allegation as “completely untrue.”.
He clarified that President Tinubu presented a N27.5 trillion budget proposal to the National Assembly in November 2023, not N25 trillion as claimed by Senator Ningi.
He further explained that the National Assembly, exercising its power of appropriation, increased the proposed budget to N28.7 trillion before passing it into law. President Tinubu then signed the revised version into law on January 1, 2024.
He said “following the false claims made by Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government is operating two versions of the 2024 budget, we consider it appropriate to inform Nigerians that there is no truth whatsoever in the allegation.
“Acting under the banner of Northern Senators’ Forum, Senator Ningi, falsely claimed in an interview he granted BBC Hausa Service, that the National Assembly debated and passed N25 Trillion as 2024 budget and not the N28.7 Trillion that is being implemented by the Federal Government.
Senators Karimi, Zam, Shehu Disagree With Ningi
Three senators – Steve Sunday Karimi, Titus Tartenger Zam and Kaka Shehu – yesterday said the allegation of budget padding against Senate President Godswill Akpabio by some senators was unfounded, baseless and a figment of the imagination.
They warned against what they described as the antics of blackmailers bent on creating an atmosphere of crisis in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.
Karimi, Zam and Shehu, speaking on behalf of the Northern Senators’ Forum, also said no room should be allowed for division and acrimony between senators from the North and South by those who may not want to accord priority to national unity and harmony.
In their statement, Karimi, who is from Kogi State, Zam from Benue State and Shehu from Borno State, on behalf of the Northern Senators’ Forum, said they cannot be used to blackmail the budget process, which was done in good faith.
Noting that the North has provided leadership in Nigeria and enjoyed the support of other regions seamlessly, they said the representatives of the North should not appear to act as instruments of destabilisation now that power has shifted to the South.
In their view, the North can agitate for a fair share of the national pie, but within the ambits of decency, decorum and dignity.
Speaking on the matter, the chief executive of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf told LEADERSHIP last night that “it is an issue within the National Assembly because as far as we can see, what we saw that was presented publicly was the approved budget of N28 trillion which was said to be approved and that was what was taken to the president for accent. The president presented N27 trillion and the National Assembly approved N28 trillion, so this story of N3 trillion padding will require some interrogation within the National Assembly. There may be some issues as to the kind of figures that normally should be approved. There must be some issues among them which will require some further investigation or interrogation to unearth the true position.’’
Also, the executive director at Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Rafsanjani in a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP yesterday said, “the National Assembly members had the responsibility to scrutinize every budget that comes to them and they are supposed to raise issues and concerns and if budget is not done in a very inclusive and participatory and transparent manner, it would not enable lawmakers to know what goes into any allocation, to any project and it becomes a huge concern. The legislators are supposed to be on the same page on whatever allocation is supposed to go into every sector. So, if a few legislators would sit down and allocate projects to themselves, then it becomes a big concern.
“The legislators should reach out to the various ministries and parastatals to see what have been passed, because the budget was passed almost at gunpoint. It was not done with the normal scrutiny. From 1999 there has been robust discussion by members of the National Assembly and there used to be public hearing but because the budget of this year was almost at gunpoint, it was like a directive to the members who have complained that they have not even seen the details.”
According to him, the passage of the budget was not done in the traditional way of scrutinizing the budget, getting the details, knowing where and how funds are going to be allocated.
“So as the executive has done their own, some of the principal officers are doing their own. The rest of the members cannot query it because of the nature of the master servant relationship in the national assembly, where the members have limit to which they can caution certain things,” he added.
Renowned economist, Professor Tayo Bello however said the issue of budget padding in Nigeria, which has been a practice over the years, is a matter of interest.
He said there have been instances of duplication of projects adding that it is possible to pad the budget up to the tune of N3 trillion.
