Obi: Senate owes Nigerians clarification on budget padding claim — suspending Ningi addresses nothing

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, says the senate owes Nigerians clarification on the alleged padding of the 2024 budget.

BACKGROUND

At the weekend, Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi central, stirred controversy when he alleged that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion.

Ningi said “huge damage” has been done to the north and the entire country in the budget.

On Tuesday, the allegations raised by the senator were debated during plenary at the red chamber, amid a rowdy session.

Subsequently, the senator was suspended for three months.

‘PUBLIC MONEY SHOULD BE USED FOR GOOD’

In a thread on his X page on Wednesday, Obi said the suspension of the lawmaker has not addressed vital issues emanating from the allegation.

“The fuss over the alleged N3 trillion padded into the 2024 budget raised by a Senator still rages as the Senate’s reaction of suspending the whistle-blower has not addressed vital issues emanating from the allegation,” he said.

“The Senator is insisting on his allegation. Fresh allegations have also cropped up over indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of constituency projects by the Senate leadership.

“A civic society group, Budgit, through their official, have also added their voice to agree with the Senator. They allege that there was no detailed project allocations for about N3.7trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act.

“The suspension of the senator involved by the senate has not addressed the issue.

“They still owe the Nigerian public a clear clarification over the various claims and counterclaims, including that of the executive arm, to be able to know exactly what is happening, and also disclose to the public, the exact amounts allocated for constituency projects for appropriate monitoring of implementation by the public.”

The former Anambra governor added that every penny of public funds should be used for the good of all Nigerians.

“Today in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the basic level,” Obi added.

“Nigeria has about 20 million out-of-school children today because of the poor investment in education.

“These are resources that would have been utilised to ensure that our children are taken off the streets and returned to schools.

“Let every penny of our public fund be used for public good. That is the only way to achieve the New Nigeria we are working towards.”