*As BudgIT confirms N3.7trn budget padding allegation

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has declared that the State government is behind Senator Abdul Ningi, the Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District who was handed a three-month suspension on Tuesday after his allegations of N3.7 trillion not being traceable in the 2024 budget.

Following the suspension by the Senate, the Senator subsequently resigned as Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF).

Governor Mohammed, who spoke during the State Executive Council meeting at the Government House, Bauchi on Wednesday, said: “Yesterday I was very sad the Senate suspended one of our best from Bauchi for saying the truth, for standing up to be the beacon of the truth.”

Governor, who is also the chairman of the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) Governors’ Forum, said, “Equally I don’t know what we will do but we will discuss privately to see what we can do to support him because I support whatever he is doing and that is our best position especially if what he saying is the truth.”

Meanwhile, a civic organisation focused on the Nigerian budget and public data, BudgIT, has thrown its weight behind suspended Senator Abdul Ningi on the N3.7 trillion gap in the 2024 budget presented to the National Assembly.

The Director and co-founder of BudgIT, Seun Onigbinde, said in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday that Ningi was right if he posited that there was no detailed allocation for N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget and allegations that two versions of the 2024 budget were passed at the National Assembly.

The BudgIT boss said there are “statutory elements” in the budget that do not have a comprehensive analysis.

Onigbinde said the allocations of the National Assembly, National Judicial Council (NJC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and others do not carry a detailed breakdown.

He added that the people have the right to know how the funds earmarked for the aforementioned agencies are being spent.

According to BudgtIT leader: “Around N2 trillion of the budget presented by the president is the government-owned enterprises budget. So, if Senator Ningi says there is a N25 trillion budget, yes, that is the MDA’s budget. It’s different from the government-owned enterprises budget which was now added.

“It is factual that he said that but it doesn’t mean that we are running two concurrent budgets. There is a different conversation that those projects should be detailed. TETFUND should not just get an allocation.

“What are you spending the money on? INEC is collecting a huge chunk of funds but there is no public details about what the funds are used for. The same thing with NJC, even the national assembly. In the current budget, the national assembly gave a very broad summary of its allocations but there are no detailed allocations on a granular level that everybody can interrogate.

“These are transparency issues and if you put all these together, that is around N3.5 trillion to N3.7 trillion. So, if that is what he (Ningi) wants to interrogate, there are components of the budget where there is no breakdown. That is very factual.

“But the national assembly needs to push back. We need a breakdown. What is NJC spending money on? We give more money to the NJC and say take it arbitrarily. What are they spending that money on? There should be a detailed breakdown to the public. On that point, Senator Ningi is right but to look as if we are running parallel budgets, that is not right.”y