Rowdy session at N’Assembly over budget defence

Agencies’ heads shun session as Akpabio seeks priority for citizens’ welfare
The 2025 budget defence session of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) turned chaotic, yesterday, as lawmakers erupted into a heated dispute, culminating in a dramatic walkout by Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi (APC, Ebonyi North).

The disruption marred the joint committee session, which was supposed to review the police budget and assess the Inspector-General’s funding requests.

The joint committee on Agricultural Production and Services also expressed disappointment over the decision of some heads of agencies to travel during the ongoing budget defence.

However, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, said the N49.74 trillion budget must be made to give utmost priority to the welfare of every Nigerian.

The uproar began when the Inspector-general of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, was presenting details of the police budget, particularly regarding the construction of five zonal police headquarters.

As he spoke, House of Representatives member for Uyo/Uruan/Ibesikpo/Nsit Atai Federal constituency of Akwa Ibom, Mark Esset, interjected, questioning why certain figures he was referencing were absent from the document provided to committee members.

The situation escalated when Nwaebonyi, a principal officer, demanded that the IGP provide a proper copy of the information to the lawmakers present.

But the committee chairman overruled his Point of Order and allowed the IGP to continue his presentation. Frustrated the committee’s decision, Nwaebonyi stormed out of the session, while engaging in a verbal exchange with several House members who jeered at him as he made his exit.

Ranking lawmaker, Yusuf Gagdi, expressed disappointment over the incident, defending the committee’s decision to follow established parliamentary procedures and emphasising that members should not interject without recognition.

Once tensions subsided, the IGP acknowledged that the police force remains significantly underfunded, advocating the removal of the police from the “envelope” budgetary system to secure more consistent and sufficient funding.

He revealed that President Bola Tinubu had approved an increase in the force’s recruitment quota from 10,000 to 30,000 yearly, which he hopes will bolster the force’s performance and efficiency in the coming year.

THE lawmakers specifically threatened zero allocation to agencies under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, whose Chief Executive Officers failed to appear in person to defend their 2025 budget .

Chairman of the Senate Committee, Saliu Mustapha, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Bello Kaoje, who raised the concern, expressed disappointment that despite the President’s directive for all heads of agencies to appear before the National Assembly to defend their budget, some of them chose to travel.

The lawmakers’ displeasure arose due to the absence of the Director General of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service, Dr Vincent Isegbe, during the budget defence session of the agency.

Mustapha told the representative of the Director General that there was no reason for the chief executive, who is the accounting officer, not to appear before them, and ordered him to appear latest on January 20 to defend his budget.

He said the projections by the World Food Programme (WFP) that about 33.1 million Nigerians would be in acute hunger in 2025 was a clear indication that the nation should toy with food security.

Chairman, House Committee on Agricultural Services and Production, Bello Kaoje, warned against agencies failing to come forward to defend their budget.

AKPABIO gave the advice in his opening remarks at the Stakeholders Public Hearing/Interactive session on the 2025 Appropriation Bill at the National Assembly.

The budget proposal gave Defence the highest allocation of N4.91 trillion while Infrastructure has N4.06 trillion, with Education getting N3.52 trillion and Health N2.48 trillion.

The Senate president charged lawmakers to ensure that the interest of ordinary Nigerians was captured through proper investment of public funds in the promotion of welfare and prosperity.