More controversies appear to be swirling around the 2024 budget as more indications that the portion of the budget attributable to some federal government institutions lack details and transparency.
The affected institutions, including the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were allocated between N3.5 trillion and N3.7 trillion without specific expenditure heading, or stipulations of what the monies were meant for.
These were some of the findings of BudgiT, a fiscal policy analytics and advocacy organization with its Co-founder, Seun Onigbinde, declaring that Senator Abdul Ningi, who blew the whistle on the budget was right about the low level of transparency in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
This came as the Minority Leader of the Senate, Abba Moro, expressed concerns yesterday that the Senate is currently having credibility problems, following suspension of the whistle blower, Senator Abdul Ningi.
This is even as Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, also yesterday threw his weight behind Senator Ningi, the lawmaker representing Bauchi Central senatorial district, who was handed a three-month suspension by the Senate for his expose, just as Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, and Transparency International in Nigeria, TI-Nigeria, declared Senator Ninigi’s suspension as sheer attack on freedom of expression and opposition’s rights.
Similarly, the presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, urged the Senate to come clean and clear all allegations associated with the N3 trillion padding in the 2024 budget.
Onigbinde, who was a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme late Tuesday, stated: “There should be a detailed breakdown of the budget. On that point, Senator Ningi is right”.
Ningi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) resigned as Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum, even as he was suspended by his colleagues in the red chamber on Tuesday over budget padding allegations.
BudGit fact-checks
But the BudGit co-founder, Onigbinde, said: “As the Senate rowdy session was going on, we were also fact-checking and one of the things we found is that we were not able to lay hold to the claim by Senator Ningi. A budget of N28.7trillion was passed into law and we were not able to see where N3.7trn (was missing).
“Historically, there are items in the budget that don’t have breakdown, like statutory transfers but that does not mean there is a certain level of capital projects by the Federal Government that was appropriated and does not have a breakdown.”
He said the entire capital project was around N9trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu after the bill was reviewed upward from N27.5trn to N28.78trn.
“The budget we have now have the ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) and the government-owned enterprise budget.
“Around N2trn of the budget presented by the President is the government-owned enterprises budget. So, if Senator Ningi says there is a N25trn budget, yes, that is the MDA’s budget. It’s different from the government-owned enterprises budget whose budget was now added.
“It is factual that he says that but it doesn’t mean that we are running two concurrent budgets. There is a different conversation that those projects should be detailed. TETFUND should not just get an allocation. What are you spending money on? INEC is collecting huge chunk of funds but there is no public details about what the funds are used for.
“In the current budget, the National Assembly gave a very broad summary of its allocations but there are no detailed allocations on a granular level that everybody can understand.
“These are transparent issues and if you put all these together, that is around N3.5trn to N3.7trn. So, if that is what he (Ningi) wants to interrogate, that there are components of the budget where there are no breakdown, that is very factual.”
The Budgit boss urged the executive and the National Assembly to ensure transparency in the budgetary allocations to MDAs and government-owned enterprises.
Senate already having some credibility problems – Minority Leader
Reacting to Ningi’s suspension yesterday, Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, said the upper chamber is having some credibility problems as a result.
Senator Moro said: “The budget in question was passed by the senators. Senator Ningi is a senator, he was a member of the Appropriation Committee. I am from the North and he purported to speak for the North.
“Why I was angry is that Senator Kawu Samaila who is the spokesperson of the Northern Senators Forum came before me and said he was going to address the press on this same matter while the debate was going on.
“I said ‘you don’t do that. You raised issues, we are tackling the issues and here you are, you want to address the press, go ahead and address the press.’ That was why I raised my hands because as minority leader, Senator Kawu Samaila is a member of the NNPP, he is with me and signed for me to be a minority leader.
“So why would he not accept my advice? As people have commented now, the Senate is already having some level of credibility problems. Why would an individual arrogate to himself the power to know it all, say it all?”
Speaking further, Senator Moro, who spoke in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, yesterday, also defended the action of the Senate leadership, saying it did the right thing in Ningi’s matter.
‘I think the Senate did the appropriate thing, I was there. Budget padding may not be mentioned here now in the 10th Senate because previous budgets have been criticised based on budget padding.
“But this is the first time a participant senator who was honestly engaged in the whole process is coming out to say that what I did was wrong and rubbing it on all of us. I think it is not correct.”
He faulted Ningi’s action, recalling how the Northern Senators Forum had an audience with the Senate President in which Kawu and Ningi were in attendance.
Bauchi governor declares support for Ningi over Senate suspension
In his reaction yesterday, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State defended Senator Ninigi for his expose, condemining the three months suspension slammed on him by the Senate.
Speaking during the State Executive Council meeting at Government House, Bauchi, the governor said he was with Ningi as the face of opposition in the Senate.
He said: “We will, as the opposition to the Federal Government, say some of the things that should be done in our modest opinion, but it is not for us to disparage our country. ‘’Yesterday (Tuesday), I was very sad for the Senate to suspend one of our best from Bauchi for saying the truth, for standing up to be the beacon of truth.
“Equally, I don’t know what we will do but we will discuss privately to see what we can do to support him because I support whatever he is doing. And that is the face of the opposition, especially if what he saying is the truth. I am not too quick to go to the media but, certainly, he has shown courage.”
Come clean, clear all the allegations, Obi tells Senate
The presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, in his reaction yesterday, asked the Senate to come clean and clear all allegations associated with the N3 trillion padding in the 2024 budget.
Obi, who gave the charge in a series of tweets on his X handle yesterday, told the Senate that the Nigerian public deserves to know the whole truth about the allegations, especially as the Senate and the executive were singing discordant tunes on the matter, while fresh allegations over the sharing formula of constituency funds in the same budget were cropping up.
He wrote: “The fuss over the alleged N3 trillion padded into the 2024 budget raised by a Senator still rages as the Senate reaction of suspending the whistle-blower has not addressed vital issues emanating from the allegation.
“The senator is insisting on his allegation and the executive agreed that there was only N1.2trillion padded, not N3trillion as alleged by the Senate.
“Fresh allegations have also cropped up over indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of constituency projects by the Senate leadership.
“A civic group, Budgit, through their official, have also added their voice to agree with the Senator. They alleged that there was no detailed project allocations for about N3.7trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
“As the Senate suspension of the senator involved has not addressed the issue, they still owe the Nigerian public a clear clarification over the various claims and counter-claims, including that of the executive arm, to be able to know exactly what is happening, and also disclose to the public, the amounts allocated for constituency projects for appropriate monitoring of implementation by the public.
“I had particularly elucidated in my earlier comments on what we can use the N3 trillion to achieve, by showing that it is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined.
“Now that the executive arm has accepted that the padded amount is only N1.2 trillion, it is still a very significant amount, when you consider that it is almost five times the N251.47 billion proposed for Universal Basic Education, which is the foundation of education, in the country.
‘Use the money for health, education’
“Today in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the basic level. Nigeria has about 20 million out-of-school children today because of the poor investment in education. These are resources that would have been utilised to ensure that our children are taken off the streets and returned to schools.
“The N1.2 trillion as the executives claimed to have been padded, if channelled to any of the critical areas of development, could have positively impacted the nation and uplifted the people.
“If, indeed, the report from the BudgiT is true that there is about N3.7 trillion without any detailed project allocations, I strongly urge the Senate to do more detailed work of channelling these funds into the critical areas of development – education, health and pulling people out of poverty, which will in turn, minimise the criminality we are facing today.
“We must, as a matter of urgency, put a stop to all the wastage of our scarce resources, amid the excruciating hardship in the country. Let every penny of our public funds be used for public good. That is the only way to achieve the New Nigeria we are working towards.”
Ningi: Attack on freedom of expression, oppositions’ rights – CISLAC, TI
Also yesterday, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, and Transparency International in Nigeria, TI-Nigeria, declared the suspension of Senator Ningi as sheer attack on freedom of expression and opposition’s rights.
In a statement, Executive Director of CISLAC/TI-Nigeria, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the Senate’s action was not only undemocratic but also questionable.
Rafsanjani also pointed out that anything outside the provisions in the Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; Article 19 (2) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, was tantamount to deliberate violation of human right and apparent disregard to the rule of law.
He said: “The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria) is seriously perturbed by the undemocratic action and questionable decision by leadership of the Senate as shockingly demonstrated in the recent unfounded suspension of the Senator Abdul Ningi.
“We are not unaware that the suspension was initiated against Senator Ningi for expressing his constitutionally guaranteed concerns and observations on 2024 budget at this critical moment when the nation is deeply soaked in socio-economic and financial crisis.
“The suspension is not unconnected with the public exposure of the N3trillion padded into the 2024 budget by the Upper Chamber, which has hitherto failed to display transparency and public accountability in its annual budgetary allocation and spending.
“This includes the inequality and disproportionate marginalisation surrounding the distributions of the N3trillion, where each senator is expected to receive N500million as constituency allowance.
‘’We recognise and affirm that freedom of expression and opinion remains sacrosanct to preserve the democratic culture, values and principles in Nigeria.
“We, without hesitation, uphold our position that freedom of opinion and expression is a constitutional and legally-backed right under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; Article 19 (2) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966; hence, the sanity and sanctity of these provisions must be strictly adhered, demonstrated and protected by a civic institution such as National Assembly.
‘’Anything outside these provisions is tantamount to deliberate violation of human right and apparent disregard to the rule of law.
“We must reiterate that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a supreme law of the country gives zero provision or power to the Senate to suspend a member of the National Assembly. ‘’Such provisions are only found in the ethics and privileges committee laws, which is answerable to the plenary through the Senate president.
‘’On this note, the committee laws cannot override the Constitution, especially in a matter of freedom of expression which is a fundamental right.
“Just as every member of the National Assembly representing his/her constituency has the primary mandates and responsibilities to absorb communal observations and offer feedback to the people for public accountability, expressing such in form of opinion must not be interfered, intimidated or suppressed in anyway or form.
‘Action projects legislative arm as autocratic’
“The repressive action by leadership of the Senate would clearly project the legislative arm as autocratic, which to a large extent would negatively impact legislators’ independence, robust debate, genuine submissions, and image of the legislature before Nigerians and rest of the world.
“Unjust suspension of a senator who represents an entire senatorial district is similar to public demonstration of unguarded culture of silencing,insensitivity, disrespect and marginalisation of the people.
“We strongly maintain that intimidating or silencing opinion of the dissents or oppositions is unhealthy in any civilised democracy and must not be tolerated as a culture in Nigeria. Despite the multiple number of opposition parties in the National Assembly, they appear to be conquered by power of the executive as well as the principal officers in the legislature.”
Rafsajani, however, called on the Senate not to silence opposition in the National Assembly, and warned that such action will lead to dictatorship and oppression, and should, therefore, not be allowed to exist in any form.
“We, therefore, call on the Senate to as a matter of urgency, shun silencing opposition views in the legislature; as the essence of the legislature is to allow for freedom of expression and contrary opinions as well as provide a democratic platform for constructive debates that enhance national interest.
“The greatest danger is that legislators can no longer be allowed to perform their duties, including oversight and opposing views on the executive and principal officers in the Senate which will be tantamount democratic dictatorships.
“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians and the media to protect and reject any undemocratic action or decision by the National Assembly targeted at impeding public accountability and shrinking civic space.’’
PDP demands Akpabio’s resignation, says it stands with Senator Ningi
Also reacting yesterday, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, asked the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to immediately step aside and allow for an independent investigation into the allegation that a staggering N3.7 trillion was discreetly inserted into the 2024 budget for alleged non-existent projects.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, who made the party’s position public, in Abuja, yesterday, said the party also demanded that Senator Akpabio immediately report at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over his pending case with the commission.
‘President should speak on N86b contract scam’
Ologunagba said: “Furthermore, the Senate President should speak out on the reported N86 billion contract scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, during his tenure as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
“The PDP firmly condemns the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi by the All Progressives Congress, APC, leadership in the Senate without a detailed inquest into the issue of budget padding which he raised.
“The suspension of Senator Ningi is apparently a desperate move to suppress investigation, conceal and sweep the facts under the carpet.
“Moreover, the frustration of investigation by the APC Senate leadership further confirms PDP’s repeated alert that prominent APC officials in the National Assembly and a top official in the Presidency have been using ministers and other government functionaries to siphon budgeted funds from the national coffers.
“We ask, why did the APC leadership in the Senate not refer the matter to the appropriate Senate Standing Committee for an open investigation, in line with the extant Rules of the Senate? What is the APC Senate leadership afraid of and what is it hiding from Nigerians?
“It is even more absurd that instead of recusing himself, the Senate President sat as a judge in the matter; a situation that can bring the institution of the Senate to further public disrepute.
“This is especially as the issues at hand heavily border on alleged gross misconduct and criminal betrayal of public trust which are serious offenses under our laws.
“Nigerians can now see why the APC leadership in the National Assembly, especially in the Senate continues to condone the unbridled looting of public resources including funds meant for palliatives for poor and vulnerable citizens.
“This apparent inclination towards covering up sleaze in the polity is already pitching the institution of the Senate against Nigerians who are demanding for answers on the matter. Of course, the widely condemned suspension of Senator Ningi does not provide answers to the budget padding allegation.”
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