“All of us are culpable. Some so-called senior Senators here got N500 million each from the 2024 budget, I am a ranking Senator, I didn’t get anything. No Senator has a right to accuse Senator Ningi.”

With that bombshell, Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, yesterday, shook the table and blew the lid off the alleged misappropriation and abuse of public funds by public officers, confirming fears of many Nigerians that the National Assembly might have become a ‘Hallowed Chamber of Corruption.’

As anticipated, yesterday’s reconvening of the Red Chamber was expected to be a heated session after the disclosure at the weekend by Senator Abdul Ningi, chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum (NSF) representing Bauchi Central, that the 2024 budget was padded to the tune of over N3.7 trillion.

It took the quick intervention of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who re-enacted his infamous ‘off your mic’ jibe to rule the Cross River lawmaker out of order. But the revelation from Agom-Jarigbe that some senators were given N500 million as palliatives for their constituents, while others got N200 million, reinforced Ningi’s claims.

The Senate was immediately thrown into a rowdy session following the revelation of uneven distribution of the Federal Government’s palliatives to senators for onward disbursement to their constituents, a repeat of the rice palliatives from President Bola Tinubu to Senators for Christmas.

The business of the day began with the Red Chamber debating the allegation by Ningi during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service. Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, representing Ogun West, had angrily stormed the chamber at about 11.00 a.m. saying, “No closed door, let’s do it open.”

He raised Orders 9, 10, 41 and 51 to move the motion of privilege and issue of national importance against Ningi over the interview, disclosing that the budget passed by the National Assembly for the 2024 fiscal year is N25 trillion while the one being implemented by the Presidency is N28.7 trillion.

Following a motion sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Jimoh (APC, Ondo South), Ningi was served the Abdulmumin Jibril treatment – a suspension from the Senate for three months, akin to the 2017 suspension Jibril, the Kano House of Representatives member got for raising the dust over padded budget during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

After extensive deliberation lasting over three hours, Ibrahim moved a motion that Ningi be suspended for 12 months. Still, the motion was amended by Senator Asququo Ekpeyong (APC, Cross River South) that the punishment be reduced to six months. Senator Garba Maidoki (PDP, Kebbi South) then moved that Ningi be suspended for three months or that an apology be accepted if he wrote to the Senate within 24 hours. He was seconded by Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), whose motion the Senate eventually adopted.

The Senate also warned Senator Suleiman Kawu (NNPP, Kano South) against sharing and distributing disturbing news about the Senate.

Concurring, the President of the Senate, Akpabio, said the reputation of the Senate has been soiled as Nigerians are bashing the parliament from all over the world.

He said: “Nigerians are bashing the Senate. Many Nigerians will never in future come back to respect this chamber. The integrity of this chamber has been totally damaged and we wanted you to repair it with your apology,” he said.

The Majority Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, claimed that some senators were planning to impeach Akpabio before July 2024. Bamidele said this during the debate that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion.

While speaking, Bamidele, the senator representing Ekiti Central, said the allegation made by Ningi is “tantamount” to a “civilian coup” against Akpabio. The majority leader said the Bauchi senator wanted to use the platform of the Northern Senators’ Forum to execute the “civilian coup.”

He further stated that a few senators have refused to work with Akpabio after he was elected the senate president on July 13, 2023 .

“I stand to say that, what my big brother, distinguished Senator Ningi, who I respect so well, planned to do was tantamount to a civilian coup, which has failed,” Bamidele said.

Immediately after the stormy session, Ningi resigned from his position as chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum. Although the resignation letter was dated March 11, a copy was made public shortly after his suspension.

Ningi, in a letter sent to the forum, wrote: “I would like to resign my position as the Chairman of the Northern Senators forum. This is of course necessitated by unfolding events in the National Assembly, the North and the nation at large.

“I would like to especially thank members of the forum for the opportunity given to me for the last eight months to spearhead this very important forum. I believe this forum is very important and fundamental to the progress and development of Northern Nigeria.”

Budget padding, which BudgIt said, “frequently encourages theft, fraud, and a corrupt culture” came to the public knowledge in 2017 while Yakubu Dogara was Speaker of the House of Representatives and Jibrin chaired the House Committee on Appropriation.

Jibrin alleged that the 2016 national budget was “padded” by principal officers to the tune of N4 billion, while 10 committees of the House introduced projects worth about N284 billion into the budget illegally.

Again in 2021, the budget proposed by former President Buhari to the lawmakers was N13.08 trillion. But upon passage, it was increased to N13.6 trillion, an increment of over N500 billion.

BudgIT also noted that: “With our assessment of the last three appropriation bills and acts of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years, we’ve been able to outline the unruly insertions of over N1.8 trillion by the National Assembly during this timeline.

Reacting to the drama at the Senate, Executive Director of Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED), Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said the current ‘drama’ does not portray Nigeria as a serious nation that is ready to address poverty.

He said: “What Is happening is that few are suddenly sharing the commonwealth of the nation to the detriment of the people. The Tinubu administration has shown that government in this country is about sharing.

“All the money that has been realised from subsidy removal, and the one that has been borrowed, we have seen the manner in which the money is being shared. They have moved from sharing billions to trillions. And then the national assembly has only their own personal interest in mind.”

The Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, accused the present administration of practising what he described as an “envelope budget.”

Describing the current Senate President as worse compared to his predecessors, he observed that from the onset, the 2024 appropriation did not follow the normal traditional method of budget defence and scrutiny.

Recalling that before, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) had advocated for a public hearing on the budget, he said what the current administration is doing is not a budget based on needs assessment but an envelope budget.

He said the envelope budget will not help the nation in achieving development but will ensure allocation to sectors and agencies without a needs assessment.

“The last administration under Ahmed Lawan did a similar thing. In fact, Akpabio is doing worse than what the ninth assembly did. This is because, under Akpabio, you dare not raise objections to anything that is coming from the executive. I think it is a betrayal to the Nigerian people. It is a betrayal of checks and balances. It is not a normal procedure of governance, which has the legislature and executive playing an important role in ensuring development, transparency and accountability.

“Akpabio is receiving instructions from the presidency without anyone raising concern or objection and that is why the 2024 budget went this way without members having details.

President Bola Tinubu signs the 2024 appropriation bill into law. With him are Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; Speaker, House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu; Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila and others at the Presidential Villa in Abuja…

“Hence, there is no any credible reason for suspending a member for raising concern. He is representing people and his people must not be denied representation.

“Also, it is unfortunate that opposition political parties are silent on what is going on. You have almost 40 per cent of opposition members in the current National Assembly. What are they doing? Why can’t they raise concern when they see APC doing the wrong thing? But it seems they have conspired with the ruling party to keep quiet for personal gain.”

National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Peter Ameh, lampooned the Senate for its rash decision to suspend Ningi. Also, the chairman of Action Alliance (AA), Kenneth Udeze, said the Senate should be cautious as Ningi’s allegation over budget padding should not be thrown away just like that.

“The best thing the Senate could have done was to allow for a thorough investigation by referring the matter to the appropriate committee of the Senate for proper investigation. By hurriedly suspending the Senator, it shows that the Senate as a body has something to hide, especially during the plenary when another Senator (Jarigbe) made an allegation that the sum of N500 million was allocated to ranking Senators,” Ameh noted.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as a coordinated cover-up the suspension order slammed on Ningi by the Akpabio-led Senate over his allegations that the 2024 budget is padded with over N3 trillion.

HURIWA said the suspension was hasty and will inevitably be interpreted as a negative sign that the National Assembly, which ought to be the bastion of civil democracy is being turned into a secret society since the Senators failed to conduct a publicly advertised probe of the damaging allegations made by Ningi. HURIWA condemned the Senators for behaving like political thugs and for being indecorous during the session leading to the suspension of Ningi.

Also, immediately after yesterday’s plenary, it was gathered that President Tinubu met behind closed doors with Akpabio and the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The agenda of the meeting was not made public at the time of filing this report, but it was reliably gathered that it was not unconnected with the suspension of Ningi over the comment credited to him that President Tinubu is implementing a different budget from what was presented to the National Assembly.

The President of the Senate did not talk to journalists when he finished the meeting with the President. (The Guardian)

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