National Assembly, not Tinubu padded 2024 budget – Presidency

thecornetadmin March 11, 2024

0 2 minutes read

President Tinubu surrounded by President of Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and a coterie of aides during the budget signing

The Nigerian Government has denied that the executive arm, led by President Bola Tinubu, is operating two versions of the 2024 budget.

Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum (NSF), Senator Abdul Ningi, had made the allegation. Ningi stressed that the budget was skewed to disfavor the northern region of the federation.

However, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on media and information strategy to President Bola Tinubu, said, rather, the National Assembly jacked up the budget.

“We consider it appropriate to inform Nigerians that there is no truth whatsoever in the allegation,” Onanuga said in a statement.

As he stated, President Tinubu had presented a budget of N27.5 Trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly. The said budget comprised ‘N9.92 Trillion recurrent expenditure, Debt Service N8.25 Trillion, and Capital Expenditure N8.7 Trillion,’ he explained.

“He (President Tinubu) did not present a budget of N25 Trillion,” the presidential aide added.

“Contrary to the strange view expressed by Senator Ningi, there was no way the Senate could have debated and passed a N25 Trillion budget that was not presented to the National Assembly.

“We don’t expect a ranking Senator not to pay due attention to details before making wild claims.

“It is also important to let Nigerians know that the budget that President Tinubu signed into law on January 1, 2024 as passed by the National Assembly was N28.7 Trillion.

“The National Assembly, in its wisdom, increased the amount proposed by the Executive by N1.2 Trillion.

“In the spirit of democracy which allows give and take, President Tinubu didn’t withhold his assent to the Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly.

“We want to stress that if the budget figure was increased and made to be different from what the Executive proposed, it was the National Assembly that jacked it up in exercise of its power of appropriation.”

The presidential aide also denied the allegation that the budget was made to deliberately disfavor the northern region.

He said, “President Tinubu is leading a government that is fair and equitable to every part and segment of Nigeria.

“In terms of funding, distribution of capital and priority projects, the 2024 Appropriation Act was not skewed against any section of the country,” he said.