Pulse.ng : Budget Padding: Group Tasks Northern Senators On Expectations Of Their Constituents

By Sani Idris

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

The group, made the call amidst the ongoing fracas between the leadership of the Senate and one of its member, Senator Abdul Ningi, Bauchi Central who was suspended over alleged budget padding allegation

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday in Kaduna, President of the group, Murtala Abubakar, said Senator Ningi was not new in 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 therefore, said the art and act of budget process was something Ningi must have mastered.

Abubakar, said Senator Godswill Akpabio who was picked as Commissioner by Governor 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 is not new to the Nigerian system, adding that 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 sign it.

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

“The Budget did not only vindicated Senator Ningi, but gave a breakdown of finances over three trillion naira 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 Senator Ningi is also unnerving,”he lamented.

The President also lamented that, with all the woes of insecurity, banditry, kidnapping for ransom among several set backs 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 man-up by leaving upto the expectations of their constituents who are 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 to school for fear of kidnapping” and

“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 which may spell doom for Nigeria,”he said.(NAN)