The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria’s last year’s election, Mr Peter Obi, has asserted that the Senate still owes its citizens a number of explanations as regards the budget padding scandal rocking the Upper Chambers at the moment.
Obi explained that the claims and counter-claims over the alleged N3trillion which was padded into the 2024 budget, requires proper explanation as to what Nigerians must need to know regarding management of the nation’s.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that the Senate under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio had on Tuesday suspended Senator Abdul Ningi over allegations of N3.7trn padding of the 2024 Budget.
Ningi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Bauchi Central Senatorial District, was suspended for three months after a long stormy session in the red chamber.
In an interview, Ningi had claimed that the Federal Government is operating two versions of the 2024 budget and that the N28.7 trillion Budget passed and signed into law by President Bola Tinubu was skewed against the North.
Read Also: Insecurity: Nigeria Losing Economic Life, Peter Obi Laments
Many Senators and the Presidency had pounced on Ningi, describing his claims as “far-fetched and unbecoming of a leader of his status”.
Ningi would later deny saying that the country is operating two budgets but insisted that only N25trn of the budget was tied to projects while N3.7trn had no project tied to it.
Trying to clarify the claims made by Ningi, the presidency came out to say that the National Assembly padded the budget with N1.27tn, adding that it does “not see where the N3tn is coming from.”
Addressing both the Senate and the Presidency in a communique shared via X, Mr Obi asserted that it is sacrosanct for every penny of Nigeria’s public fund to be used for public good, adding that the alleged N3 trillion is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined.
He stressed that even if there is no N3trillion as claimed, then, the N1.2 trillion which the executive branch admitted to have been padded, if channeled into any of the critical areas of development, could have positively impacted the nation and uplifted the people.