Budget padding: Senator Ningi did nothing new and wrong, says group

A group, Arewa Defence League, has tasked Northern senators on keeping up to the expectations of their constituents while discharging their duties.

The group made the call amidst the friction in the Senate which led to the suspension of a member, Sen. Abdul Ningi, (Bauchi Central) over allegation of budget padding.

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday in Kaduna, President of the group, Murtala Abubakar, said Senator Ningi was not new to politics.

He served in the House of Representatives in 1999 where he rose to become house leader, then moved to the Senate and also rose to be Senate leader.

He said the art and act of budget process was something Ningi must have mastered.

Abubakar said Sen Godswill Akpabio, who was picked as Commissioner by Gov. Victor Attah in 1999 and retained till 2007 before becoming Governor between 2007 and 2015, also as an executive member, was conversant with the budget process.

He explained that budget padding was not new to the Nigerian system.

He said the phrase ought to have been added to Nigerian political lexicon under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari when the Senate inserted certain things which the president then said were not implementable.

He recalled that late President Umaru Yar’adua also raised same eyebrows on the 2018 Budget and almost threatened not to sign it.

“So, Senator Ningi did nothing new and wrong. Few days after his suspension, which was speedily carried out, came out with indepth fact and figures, justifying his claim.

“The Budget did not only vindicate Sen. Ningi, but gave a breakdown of finances over N3trn in the passed and signed 2024 Budget that have no outlined projects or programmes.

“While the suspension of Ningi may be viewed as internal issues of the National Assembly, the silence of the Northern Senators, which seems to be a consent, a body chaired by Sen. Ningi, is also unnerving.”

The president also lamented that with all the woes of insecurity, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, among several setbacks that the Northern Nigeria experiences, the Northern Senators Forum should have been more concerned about a lopsided budget and use their number to influence more for the region.

He called on President Bola Tinubu to, like late President Yar’adua and former President Buhari, speak out and distance himself from the Senate insertions and budget padding.

“Continued silence would mean consent, despite the attempted defence by Bayo Onanuga, which held no water,” he said.

Abubakar also called on the Northern Senators to wake up by leaving up to the expectations of their constituents who were currently IDPs in their own homes, facing economic challenges and insecurity.

” Most of their constituents can’t even access their farms and send their children to school for fear of kidnapping.”

“If we fail to act and act fast, the suspension of Ningi may be a kite flying act to test the ground for more grievous acts against the majority of Nigerians.”