.…………………..Ndume Defends Senate, Says Ningi Tried To Tribalise Bugetary Allocation
Nigerian budget and public data, analyses group BudgIT, has backed suspended Senator Abdul Ningi on a N3.7 trillion gap in the 2024 budget presented to the National Assembly.
The Director and co-founder of BudgIT, Seun Onigbinde, shared the position of the group in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, stressing that Ningi was right if he posited that there was no detailed allocation for N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget.
Onigbinde argued that Ningi wasn’t wrong for saying that there was no detailed allocation for N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget.
Onigbinde further said the allocations of the National Assembly, National Judicial Council (NJC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and others do not carry a detailed breakdown, but according to him, there should be a high level of transparency around the funds allocated to the aforementioned agencies were being spent.
Ningi, representing Bauchi Central senatorial district was suspended on Tuesday by the Senate, over the allegations that two versions of the 2024 budget were passed at the National Assembly. The senator said he stood by his story and also said there was nowhere he said two versions of the budget were being implemented.
The senator from Bauchi, who was also the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), alleged that the budget was padded by N3.7 trillion and that the North has been neglected under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. On the floor of the Senate, the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun West) on Tuesday moved a motion on breach of privilege and after heated debate by senators, Ningi was suspended for three months.
..…………………..Ndume Defends Senate, Says Ningi Tried To Tribalise Bugetary Allocation
Meanwhile the Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume has reacted to the controversy, saying, Ningi tried to make the 2024 budget about tribalism. Ndume said in an interview with Channels TV that he warned the Bauchi senator from making the allegation without evidence.
Ndume said as a principal officer of the Senate, he is sure that the North was not shortchanged by the South in the budget as claimed by Ningi.
He said: “In the first instance, it started when they said capital project was skewed to the South. The total in that budget that was brought before us by the President was not up to N9 trillion, it was N8.9trn and they are talking of skewed capital project to the South and the total adding up to N15 trillion.
“That N15 trillion is strange, even with the amendment that we made, the capital component of this budget is not up to that. I told him he was wrong. I had even warned him when he brought the issue to me. I had told him to get a consultant to analyze the budget. But he refused to listen to me.”
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