The Co-Founder of civic group Budgit, Seun Onigbinde, has said that Senator Abdul Ningi was right that there was no detailed project allocations for about N3.7trn of the N28.78trn 2024 Appropriation Act.
Onigbinde, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday, disputed the Bauchi Central Senator’s claim that Nigeria was operating two concurrent budgets.
“There should be a detailed breakdown of the budget. On that point, Senator Ningi is right but to say that we are running two parallel budgets, I don’t think that is factual,” he said.
Ningi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), resigned as Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum after being suspended by his colleagues in the red chamber on Tuesday over budget padding charges.
Onigbinde stated that while the Senate was in session, the Budgit team fact-checked Ningi’s assertions.
He stated, “While the Senate was in session, we were also fact-checking, and one of the things we discovered was that we were unable to substantiate Senator Ningi’s assertion. A budget of N28.7 trillion was passed into law, and we were unable to determine where N3.7 trillion went.
“Historically, there are items in the budget that don’t have breakdown like statutory transfers but that does not means there is a certain level of capital projects by the Federal Government that was appropriated and does not have a breakdown.”
He stated that the total capital project was around N9 trillion in the 2024 Appropriation Act, which was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu after the bill was revised upward from N27.5 trillion to N28.78 trillion.
“The budget we have now have the ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) and the government-owned enterprise budget,” he said.
“The budget for government-owned firms accounts for approximately N2 trillion of the President’s proposed budget. So, if Senator Ningi states there is a N25 trillion budget, then that is the MDA’s. It differs from the budget for government-owned firms, which has already been added.
“It is true that he says that, but it does not imply that we are running two budgets simultaneously. There is a different conversation about how such initiatives should be detailed. TETFUND should not simply receive an allocation. What do you spend your money on? INEC is collecting large sums of money, but there are no public specifics about what the money is utilised for.
“In the current budget, the National Assembly provided a very general explanation of its allocations, but there are no particular allocations at the granular level that everyone understands.
“These are visible concerns, and if you add them all up, the total is between N3.5trn and N3.7trn. So, if that is what he (Ningi) wants to investigate, that there are components of the budget with no breakdown, that is quite true.”
The Budgit boss encouraged the president and the National Assembly to establish fiscal transparency for MDA and government-owned firms.