Co-founder and CEO of the Nigerian civic startup BudgIT, Seun Onigbinde, has supported Abdul Ningi’s assertions that the 2024 budget included over 3 trillion in funding, even though he did not disclose specifics.
Onigbinde made this statement on Tuesday during his appearance as a guest on Politics Today on Channels Television. Onigbinde stated that the BudgIT team verified Ningi’s assertions while the Senate was still in a boisterous session.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Ningi, who just resigned from his position as Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum due to budgetary claims, stated that more than N3 trillion is unrelated to any project in the budget.
On Channels TV, Onigbinde stated, “There should be a detailed breakdown of the budget. Ningi is correct in that regard. However, I don’t believe it is true to claim that we are operating two parallel budgets.”
Onigbinde noted that there was no breakdown for the roughly N3.7 trillion in statutory transfers, but said that this was a custom that was not unprecedented in the past.
“Yes, it is the MDA’s budget if Senator Ningi claims there is a N25 trillion budget. Compared to the budget of government-owned firms, it is different. The National Assembly provided a very general overview of its budgetary allocations in the current budget, but there aren’t any specific, easily comprehensible allocations at all. TETFUND shouldn’t merely receive funding. On what are you using your money? Although INEC is gathering enormous sums of money, the public is unaware of the purpose of the cash.”
“That comes to about N3.5 trillion to N3.7 trillion when you add all of these together. So, if Ningi wants to question whether there are budget components that do not have a breakdown, that is quite accurate.”
“That being said, our research of the budget did not locate the N3.7 trillion sum, which does not have a breakdown anyplace. I had anticipated that Ningi would have his own breakdown.”
“Some legislative components in the budgets don’t seem to have breakdowns, but that doesn’t seem out of the ordinary—it seems like this is a problem from the past. Budgetary elements that have historically served as campaign and advocacy points include statutory transfers like NJC, NDDC, and TETFUND that do not have a breakdown.”
Onigbinde further noted that several projects were given to organizations that lacked the resources to complete them. He gave the Ministry of Agriculture as an example, where a N363 billion initial request grew to N993 billion with dubious projects.
He declared that “the Ministry of Agriculture is the biggest culprit of this,” implying that it is an attempt to block progress.
“The Ministry of Agriculture’s budget of N363 billion was suggested by the executive. It turned out to be N993 billion, with thousands of projects costing more than N600 billion. Additionally, there are several agencies that have gained notoriety. The Federal Cooperative College in Orji River is now constructing a town hall about a thousand kilometers away from the campus. What technical capacity does the Federal Cooperative College have to deliver a hall if that’s not accountability?”
“And looking at the budget, it has nothing to do with the ability of those MDAs to deliver. Therefore, the administration is losing the ability to truly influence the budget to favor development.”
Consequently, he urged President Bola Tinubu to act quickly to resolve the situation. More precisely, Onigbinde asked the President to place a limit on what might be included in the budget.
“The president must intervene. This is an egregious attempt to impede progress. Additionally, he needs to find a political solution. Legislative action, in my opinion, is not the best course of action in this situation. The National Assembly can amend and modify the budget since it is a law. The President must set a limit on what can be included in the budget; this would be a political solution,” he argued.
