SERAP to n’assembly: Disclose details of your N344.85bn allocation, cut N9.4bn presidency travel budget

 Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, to reduce the proposed N344.85bn allocation in the 2025 budget for lawmakers.

In a letter dated December 21 and addressed to the lawmakers, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP’s deputy director, said the proposed budget of N9.4bn on travels, refreshment/meals, and foodstuff/catering materials for the presidency should be cut and the savings used to address the budget deficit.

SERAP urged Akpabio and Abbas “to request President Bola Tinubu to present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill, which reflects the reduced presidency budget and national assembly budget, for the approval of the national assembly.”

The organisation asked the lawmakers “to promptly disclose the detailed breakdown of the proposed national assembly budget of N344.85bn, including the details for personnel cost, salaries and allowance of lawmakers.”

“…Invite the heads of the alleged corrupt ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs] to explain the whereabouts of the missing billions of naira of public funds, as documented in the recently released 2021 audited report by the Office of the auditor-general of the federation,” the letter further read.

“Any proposed unnecessary spending by the presidency and the national assembly would amount to a fundamental breach of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended].

“The proposed huge spending is neither necessary nor in the public interest, especially in the face of the country’s dire economic situation and the level of proposed borrowing to fund the 2025 budget.

“The national assembly has transparency obligations to disclose the details and breakdown of the proposed budget for the lawmakers. We urge you to publicly commit that the national assembly will reduce and not increase its proposed budget of N344.85bn for 2025.

“While the presidency budget for ‘rehabilitation and repairs of fixed assets’ in the 2024 budget was N14bn, the budget for the same item in the 2025 budget is N26bn, an increase of about N12bn.” 

Should the national assembly and its leadership fail to reduce “the unnecessary spending and tackle the systemic corruption in MDAs”, SERAP said it would consider appropriate legal action to compel them “to discharge its constitutional oversight and fiduciary responsibilities”.