FG, lawmakers fault budget padding claim, HURIWA urges probe

Following a claim by representative of Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, that the President Bola Tinubu administration is operating two versions of the 2024 budget, the presidency, yesterday, faulted the lawmaker.

In a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, it stated: “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.

“To begin with, President Tinubu, on November 29, 2023, presented a budget of N27.5 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly, made up of N9.92 trillion recurrent expenditure, debt service of N8.25 trillion and capital expenditure N8.7 trillion.

“This was widely reported. He did not present a budget of N25 trillion.”

ALSO, three members of the forum, Senators Steve Karimi, Titus Zam and Kaka Sheu, have refuted the budget padding claim.

The trio warned against what they described as antics of blackmailers, bent on creating an atmosphere of crisis in the upper legislative chamber.

They said no room should be allowed for division among legislators from the North and South by those “who may not want to accord priority to national unity and harmony.”

In a joint statement, Karimi, who is from Kogi State, Zam (Benue) and (Borno), said they could not be used to blackmail the budget process, done in good faith.

MEANWHILE, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as terrorism any proven case of unconstitutional and illegal act by the National Assembly hierarchy of ‘budget padding’.

It, therefore, called for a thorough investigation of the allegation.

The group’s national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, yesterday, said from benefits of hindsight, the “criminal act of hiding unbudgeted items into the lawfully passed budget has generated a lot of economic haemorrhage and devastating economic paralysis all across Nigeria, which inevitably leads to the collapse of major socio-economic infrastructures.”

He added: “We are of the considered position that the crime of padding up the budget by the National Assembly’s hierarchy is not different from political terrorism.”

“Our worry however with this alarm by the Senator from Bauchi State is that he sounded as if he is out for a regional political warfare for his ethno-geographical area of Northern Nigeria, and not from the point of view of a nationalist.

“This is why the allegations must be thoroughly investigated to ascertain the merits and veracity, and then steps taken to identify the individuals responsible so they are brought to the court of competent jurisdiction to be prosecuted as terrorists.”