Allegations of suspicious insertions continue to cast a shadow over Nigeria’s 2024 national budget.
A recent report by BudgIT, titled “The Budget is a Mess,” uncovered over N3 trillion in questionable allocations, raising widespread alarm. The report points to 7,447 constituency projects, valued in trillions of Naira, being added to the National Assembly’s Appropriation Act, prompting serious concerns about transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s budgetary process.
In this week’s edition of the Mic on Podcast, with Seun Okinbaloye, Seun Onigbinde, co-founder of BudgIT, addressed these issues as he expressed disappointment in the state of the national budget by criticizing the apparent manipulation of the budget to serve personal and political agenda.
“The budget has stopped being a policy instrument and is just used to extend political leverage. I did not see the budget as a tool for national development.”
He also came to the defense of Sen. Abdul Ningi, who had initially exposed indiscriminate project insertions in the budget. Onigbinde further revealed that BudgIT had submitted a report confirming that lawmakers had inserted thousands of projects into the budget, validating Ningi’s allegations.
“I do not support the suspension of Sen. Ningi. If the National Assembly has issues with any senator in any situation, let them take anyone to court.”
Citing specific examples of budget misuse, Onigbinde condemned the illogical allocation of funds to agencies without a mandate for such projects.
“The National Assembly added over N53 billion of capital projects, including the construction of Model VIP toilets in Ebonyi, to the National Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research in Lagos. Where does that make sense?”
While calling for immediate fiscal reforms and increased accountability from the legislature, Onigbinde, therefore, stressed the need for a national summit on budget reform to address the growing concerns about the country’s budgetary process.
“If President Bola Tinubu wants to succeed, he must think about how to engage the legislative arm to ensure fiscal discipline in the national budget.
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