Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP)
in the 2023 elections, says the senate owes Nigerians clarification on the
alleged padding of the 2024 budget.
BACKGROUND
At the weekend, Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi
central, stirred controversy when he alleged that the 2024 budget was padded by
N3 trillion.
Ningi said “huge damage” has been done to the north and the
entire country in the budget.
On Tuesday, the allegations raised by the senator were
debated during plenary at the red chamber, amid a rowdy session.
Subsequently, the senator was suspended for three months.
‘PUBLIC MONEY SHOULD
BE USED FOR GOOD’
In a thread on his X page on Wednesday, Obi said the
suspension of the lawmaker has not addressed vital issues emanating from the
allegation.
“The fuss over the alleged N3 trillion padded into the 2024
budget raised by a Senator still rages as the Senate’s reaction of suspending
the whistle-blower has not addressed vital issues emanating from the
allegation,” he said.
“The Senator is insisting on his allegation. Fresh allegations
have also cropped up over indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of
constituency projects by the Senate leadership.
“A civic society group, Budgit, through their official, have
also added their voice to agree with the Senator. They allege that there was no
detailed project allocations for about N3.7trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
“The suspension of
the senator involved by the senate has not addressed the issue.
“They still owe the Nigerian public a clear clarification
over the various claims and counterclaims, including that of the executive arm,
to be able to know exactly what is happening, and also disclose to the public,
the exact amounts allocated for constituency projects for appropriate
monitoring of implementation by the public.”
The former Anambra governor added that every penny of public
funds should be used for the good of all Nigerians.
“Today in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource
development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the
basic level,” Obi added.
“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.
“Let every penny of
our public fund be used for public good. That is the only way to achieve the
New Nigeria we are working towards.”
