BudgIT, an organization dedicated to scrutinizing Nigerian budgets and public data, has affirmed the accuracy of Senator Abdul Ningi’s claims regarding a N3.7 trillion discrepancy in the budget.
Seun Onigbinde, the Director and Co-founder of BudgIT, confirmed this during his appearance on Channels Television, stating that Senator Ningi’s assertion of an unaccounted N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget holds merit.
Senator Ningi, who serves the Bauchi Central senatorial district, faced suspension by the Senate following his claim that the National Assembly passed two conflicting versions of the 2024 budget.
As the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Ningi accused the current administration of President Bola Tinubu of neglecting the North and inflating the budget by N3 trillion.
In the Senate, Senator Olamilekan Adeola of Ogun West initiated a motion citing breach of privilege against Ningi, which led to a debate and subsequent motion by Jimoh Ibrahim for Ningi’s suspension.
The Senate ultimately decided on a three-month suspension for the senator.
Onigbinde pointed out that the budget lacks detailed breakdowns for significant allocations, including those for the National Assembly, National Judicial Council (NJC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), among others.
He emphasized the public’s right to transparent information on how these funds are allocated and utilized.
“Around N2 trillion of the budget presented by the president is the government-owned enterprises budget,” Onigbinde said.
“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. TETFUND should not just get an allocation.
“What are you spending the money on? INEC is collecting a huge chunk of funds but there is no public details about what the funds are used for. The same thing with the NJC, even the National Assembly.
“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 you put all these together, that is around N3.5 trillion to N3.7 trillion. So, 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. What is NJC spending money on? We give more money to the NJC and say take it arbitrarily. What are they spending that money on? There should be a detailed breakdown to the public. On that point, Senator Ningi is right but to look as if we are running parallel budgets, that is not right.”
