Budget Padding: Senate Still Owes Nigerians Some Answers — Obi

Peter Obi

Ningi's suspension does not answer the budget padding claim; the Senate owes Nigerians an explanation says Obi.

The Labour Party's (LP) 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, claims Nigerians deserve an explanation from the Senate on the purported overspending of the 2024 budget.

The senator from Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi, sparked uproar over the weekend when he claimed that N3 trillion had been added to the 2024 budget.

According to Ningi, the budget has caused “huge damage” to the north and the nation as a whole.

The senator's accusations were discussed in a boisterous plenary session at the red chamber on Tuesday.

The senator was then placed on three months of administrative leave.

Obi stated in a thread on his X page on Wednesday that the lawmaker's suspension had not addressed important concerns arising from the accusation.

“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.”

Also, the former governor of Anambra stated that every dollar allocated to the government ought to benefit all Nigerians.

Obi added: “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.

“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.”