How Nigerian Government Allocated ₦3.32 Trillion To National Assembly, INEC, Others Without Specifying Projects
A report by BudgIT, a Nigerian civic tech organisation that promotes fiscal transparency, has unveiled some discrepancies in the 2024 budget of ₦28.78 trillion. The non-governmental organisation disclosed that over ₦3 trillion of the budget passed by the country’s National Assembly and signed by President Bola Tinubu was not tied to any projects.
The revelation by BudgIT follows Senator Abdul Ningi’s claims that ₦3.7 trillion of the budget was not allocated to any projects. While Ningi’s claim sparked outrage among Nigerians, many of whom are already skeptical of the government’s transparency, the Senator, who represents Bauchi Central, found himself at odds with his colleagues in the upper chamber and was eventually suspended for three months during a plenary session on March 12, 2024.
However, a review of the budget by BudgIT appears to have validated Ningi’s claim and showed that monies to the tune of ₦3.32 trillion, which had no project attached to it, were in fact allocated to Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) without the breakdown of how the earmarked funds would be used.
“Our findings show that a budget breakdown totaling ₦25.4 trillion was provided for the budgets of the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) and some other agencies receiving statutory allocations from the federal government.” It, however, added that a “comprehensive budget breakdown of government-owned enterprises, National Assembly, the National Judicial Commission, the Public Complaints Commission, INEC, and TETFUND, totaling ₦3.32 trillion was excluded from the budget that was passed and published.”
Why did the government fail to break down how 11.54 percent of the budget will be used to run Africa’s biggest economy?
While it’s unclear why these funds allocated to GOEs, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the National Assembly were not assigned deserving projects to show what the monies were meant for and how they would be used inside the published budget, omitting the breakdown of certain government MDAs is a common practice in Nigeria’s budgetary system.
According to BudgIT, “the practice of omitting the breakdown of certain government MDAs, the National Assembly, and the National Judicial Commission goes against one of the core principles of public budgeting which instructs that all expenditure breakdowns be presented in the same budget document.”
While the executive arm of the government submitted a budget of ₦27.50 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year in November last year, the National Assembly increased the budget by ₦1.27 trillion.
The practice of the Nigeria National Assembly padding budgets by adding projects or increasing expenditures in areas it deems fit is not new in Nigeria’s politics. In 2023, the country’s legislative arm increased the 2023 budget submitted by the then President Muhammadu Buhari from ₦20.5 trillion to ₦21.8 trillion. Similarly, in 2022, the budget presented by Buhari was increased from ₦16.4 trillion to ₦17.12 trillion.
The 2024 budget was no different as there was an increase of ₦1.27 trillion between the proposed budget and the one that was eventually passed.
What was the purpose of this increment?
BudgIT also uncovered other significant discrepancies which are escalating the held opinions that the political elites are prioritising their interests over the populace, many of whom are sinking into poverty due to President Tinubu’s economic reforms.
The reason for the increment as seen in the 2024 budget, it appears, was to allow the National Assembly to “exercise its powers to introduce new projects or increase allocations for existing budgets,” the report states.
In a country where over 26 million will face acute hunger before the end of 2024; more than 70 million people are in extreme poverty; and 28-year-high inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the middle class, BudgIT’s discovery showed that the National Assembly cut recurrent non-debt budget proposals by ₦1.15 trillion from the proposed ₦9.92 trillion to the approved sum of ₦8.77 trillion. The removal of such an amount from the non-debt budget, which includes salaries, wages, pensions, gratuity, and other social benefits, made it impossible to channel more funds to provide reliefs to Nigerians and help cushion the effect of the high cost of living.
Also, the debt budget, intended to service the country’s debt in a bid to alleviate it, was reduced by ₦220 billion. However, capital expenditure, which enabled the National Assembly to add 7,447 projects totaling ₦2.24 trillion, was significantly increased by nearly 30 percent. By increasing capital expenditure, BudgIT noted that “the National Assembly was able to indiscriminately add projects to the budget, with most projects having no national significance but narrowed to personal interests.”
While the government has continuously urged the citizens to exercise patience in the ongoing economic reforms which it promised will have a long-term benefit in the country, many have decried the government’s seemingly unwillingness to drastically reduce the high cost of governance as an indication of where its priorities lie.
