Despite the hurried suspension of budget padding whistle-blower, Senator Abdul Ningi, by the Senate on Tuesday, there were more calls yesterday for a thorough probe of the allegations.
The calls got louder as BudgIT, a public data organisation, fact checked Ningi’s claims that there were no detailed project allocations for about N3.7 trillion of the N28.78 trillion 2024 budget.
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, yesterday said the Senate owes Nigerians clarification on the alleged padding of the 2024 budget.
Obi said the claims and counter-claims over the unaccounted N3 trillion, which was reportedly padded into the 2024 budget, requires proper explanation as to what Nigerians must need to know regarding management of the nation’s resources.
Addressing both the Senate and the Presidency in a communiqué shared via X, Obi said that it is sacrosanct for every penny of Nigeria’s public fund to be used for public good, adding that the alleged N3 trillion is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined.
He stressed that even if there is no N3 trillion as claimed, then the N1.2 trillion, which the executive branch admitted to have been padded, if channeled into any of the critical areas of development, could have positively impacted the nation and uplifted the people.
Major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also demanded that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, 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.
The party also demanded that Akpabio immediately report at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the pending case of alleged looting of N108 billion belonging to the people of Akwa Ibom State under his watch as governor of the state.
The party also said 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, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said it condemns the suspension of 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 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. The widely condemned suspension of Senator Ningi does not provide answers to the budget padding allegation,” the statement added.
“Our party therefore stands with Senator Ningi for his courage in seeking probity and accountability in the polity.”
Apart from his party’s backing, support also came from home for Ningi as Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, said it was sad that the Senate suspended one of the ‘best of us from Bauchi’ for telling the truth and called for proper investigation into the alleged N3 trillion budget padding in the approved 2023 fiscal document.
Ningi, a senator representing Bauchi Central under the platform of the PDP and also chairman, Northern Senators’ Forum, was deserted by his colleagues for raising the issue, saying the claim did not represent the views of the forum. He came under fire and was suspended by the Senate for three months just as the embattled lawmaker resigned his position as the leader of the forum.
Reacting to the development, Bauchi governor while speaking during a meeting of the State Executive Council yesterday, said he is in full support of Ningi.
“We will continue as opposition to the Federal Government but that will be done in our own modesty and not to disparage our country. 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 is saying is the truth. We will investigate that. I am not too quick to go to the media but, certainly, he has shown courage. He has shown he is from Bauchi and we have to be with him,” he said.
Also throwing his weight behind the suspended Ningi, the Director and co-founder of BudgIT, Seun Onigbinde, in an interview with Channels Television, stressed that Ningi in saying that there was no detailed allocation for N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget.
The BudgIT boss said: “There are statutory elements in the budget that do not have a comprehensive analysis. Allocations of the National Assembly, National Judicial Council (NJC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and others did not carry a detailed breakdown. ”
He added that the people have the right to know how the funds earmarked for the aforementioned agencies are being spent.
“Around N2 trillion of the budget presented by President Bola Tinubu is the government-owned enterprises (GOE) budget. So, if Senator Ningi says there is a N25 trillion budget, yes, that is the MDA’s budget. It’s different from the government-owned enterprises budget, which was now added.
“It is factual that he said that but it doesn’t mean that we are running two concurrent budgets. There is a different conversation that those projects should be detailed. 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 interrogate.
“These are transparency issues and if that is what he (Ningi) wants to interrogate, there are components of the budget where there is no breakdown. That is very factual. But the national assembly needs to push back. We need a breakdown. On that point, Senator Ningi is right but to look as if we are running parallel budgets, that is not right.”
Former Kaduna lawmaker, Shehu Sani, said yesterday that budget padding is common in the National Assembly, noting that: “Budgets are padded with some projects being added by members of the National Assembly or in cahoots with the executive.
“Ningi has said what everybody knows in the Senate: that padding has been part and parcel of the culture of the National Assembly. When you blow such a whistle, the integrity, the reputation, and the honour of the National Assembly is at stake.”
Sani, however, said it was now up to the senator to back up his accusation with proof. “If you are going to raise any issue about corruption, it is required of you to know that you are dealing with highly enlightened people who are also elected by their own persons. You should be able to back it up.”
The Director, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Steve Aluko-Daniel, said Ningi’s suspension was an aberration and unwelcome development.
According to him, the Senate’s action is not dignifying, as it should have a shock absolver to allow dissenting voices on its activities. He said there should be freedom of speech; adding that any attempt to gag people from expressing their views is disastrous to democracy and will have a negative impact on the Senate and the country as a whole.
But a former Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Niyi Akintola (SAN), has expressed disappointment over the conduct and claim by the suspended lawmaker, saying Ningi failed to understand his role as a national leader and statesman who is not supposed to be seen as a regional champion.
Akintola said: ‘’There is nothing like padding as far as the National Assembly is concerned. It is the duty of the National Assembly to appropriate money. It is a misconception and a misuse of words to say padding. One can only talk of padding if it is not appropriated for and is being implemented. It becomes padding when there is a figure added to what the National Assembly voted for.
“The Senate is the upper chamber. It is the chamber for mature men and statesmen, not for sectional people. Allocations in the budget should not be based on regionalism or sectionalism. I am disappointed in him as a senator that he was canvassing sectional allocation of projects.
“Senatorial districts are not the same; their needs are not the same. He could not, therefore, be saying some people got a certain amount of allocations while some did not have. That argument doesn’t add up in a democracy. The entire population of Ekiti State is equivalent to Ibadan North local government. The population of Alimoso Local Government Area is more than some two states put together.
‘’As a statesman, he failed to understand his role. The entire country should be his constituency. Of course, he has a district. The seat is very important in a democracy. He doesn’t understand his position.’’
