Budget Padding Controversy - Ranking Senators Get N17bn Constituency Votes, Ningi Suspended

Fresh revelations at the Senate plenary, on Tuesday, indicated that  ranking senators  got N500m each for their constituency projects   in the   2024 budget passed by the National Assembly..

According to the Senate rules, any lawmaker who has spent at least a term in the House of Representatives or Senate,  is considered a ranking senator.

On the list of senators in the 10th Senate, at least 34  of them are ranking. With the revelation at the plenary on Tuesday that  senior   senators got N500m each, the ranking senators,   must have got a total of  N17bn as their constituency projects votes.

Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe (PDP, Cross-River North), during the debate of the motion on breach of privilege moved by Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC Ogun West) against Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) over Ningi’s interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (Hausa Services), alleged  that senior senators got N500m each.

Ningi was  suspended for three months on Tuesday. He also resigned as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum

Jarigbe’s revelation led to a rowdy session at the plenary with some senators denying collecting the amount.

Jarigbe later clarified, in an interview on Arise TV that the money was for constituency projects, not for personal palliatives of the Senators.

Adeola had come under orders 9, 10, 41, and 51 to move a motion of privilege and issue of national importance against Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) over Ningi’s interview with the BBC (Hausa Services)

Ningi, in the BBC interview on Friday, alleged that N3.7tn was not tied to specific projects in the 2024 budget.

Also, at a press conference on Monday, the senator insisted on the allegation, adding that he was not afraid of suspension.

Contributing to the debate on Tuesday, Jarigbe said issues about the missing N3.7tn as alleged by Ningi had been clarified under the Government Owned Enterprises and the first line charge.

He said, “I thought this issue should have ended when the chairman of the Committee on Appropriation explained that the N3.7tn was under GOEs and the first line charge.

“That explains everything.We are going back and forth on this issue and coming up with the issue of budget and individual issues concerning what comes into our various constituencies.

“If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here—the so-called senior senators—got N500m each. I am a ranking senator, but I didn’t get it. Did I go to the press? Most of you here got it.”

However, when given another chance to speak, he clarified that it was Ningi who told him that some senators got N500m.

Jarigbe said, “This is an important clarification. I was speaking when the microphone went off. I was told by Ningi that some ranking senators got N500m. Ningi came to me and said that there were discrepancies in the budget and I told him that let’s go to the Senate President.

He explained further, “Senator Yayi (Adeola) has cleared the air on the N3tn, so there is no padding anywhere. Senator Ningi told me that he got N500m worth of projects in the budget. I said Senator Ningi shouldn’t be the one speaking about certain things.’’

‘N500m for projects’

But Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), stated that though the senators got N500m, it was for constituency projects.

“I was going through online and it’s trending that every senator got N500m here today and I am not going to deny anything. My appeal to Nigerians today is not about what was said here today because I am not going to deny that.

“But we have 12 months to implement this budget and see whether any of these senators here will not implement boreholes, enough solar street lights, road construction, training, and empowerment that will not be up to N500m.”