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NASS Replies Buhari on Budget Padding Allegations

Published

7 years ago

June 22, 2018

Eric

The two chambers of the National Assembly on Friday addressed a joint press conference to push back on allegations made by President Muhammadu Buhari that federal lawmakers smuggled frivolous projects into the 2018 budgets.

The conference was addressed by the duo of Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (spokesperson for the Senate) and Abdulrazak Namdas (spokesperson for the House of representatives).

President Buhari had on Wednesday accused the National Assembly of tampering with the 2018 budget sent to them by cutting essential projects and inserting non-essential ones.

Mr Buhari stated this while signing the 2018 budget into law.

“I am concerned about some of the changes that the National Assembly has made to the budget proposals that I presented,” he said.

“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualized, designed and costed and will therefore be difficult to execute.”

But responding to the allegations, the lawmakers said, “We appreciate the fact that the 2018 Appropriations Law which was passed by the National Assembly on May 16th, 2018 was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, June 20th, 2018.

“In his speech at the signing ceremony, certain observations were raised about the work of the National Assembly and its Constitutional responsibility to modify and amend the budget estimates submitted to it by the Executive.

“You may recall that when the National Assembly passed the 2018 budget, it gave reasons why the budget was increased and why certain projects and programmes had to be provisioned for. However, due to recent developments, it is once again necessary to let Nigerians know …the justification for our actions on the 2018 budget, which were based on our Constitutional responsibilities.

“Adjustments and reductions in the locations, costs and number of projects approved were made in order to address geo-political imbalances that came with the Executive proposal. The introduction of new projects was done to ensure the promotion of the principles of Federal …Character as contained in Section 14, subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which states that “the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in …such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria…” The number of projects had to be increased in order to give a sense of belonging to every geo-political zone of the country to ensure socio-economic justice, equity, fairness, and to command National loyalty.

“Within the context of the provisions of Sections 4, 80 and 81 of the Constitution, everything that the National Assembly has done is within its powers.

Furthermore, Chapter 2 of the Constitution emphasizes the need for balance, inclusivity, & equity in the distribution of national resources. The annual budget, which symbolizes the distribution of these resources must reflect the aforementioned values, which we swore to uphold.

These Constitutional provisions, in addition to a recent Court judgment have affirmed the fact that the budget process is a ‘joint effort’ that must reflect the input of both the executive and the legislature — the latter being the closest representatives of the people.

However, we are fully aware that the Executive has the exclusive responsibility to execute all parts of the Appropriation Act once it is signed into law.

It is our firm belief that if the President had been properly briefed by his appointees, he would not have raised most of the concerns that he did in his remarks at the budget signing. It is therefore inevitable for the legislature to give members of the public an insight into what transpired during the appropriations process and how we arrived at the decisions that are contained in the 2018 budget.

With the aforementioned background, let us respond to each of the issues raised.

10. On the issue of the period when the budget proposal was submitted & when it was passed by the National Assembly, it is necessary to remind Nigerians that although the budget was submitted in November, as at March 15th 2018 (5 months and 8 days after the budget submission) Mr. President was still directing the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to compel the Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government to appear before the committees of the National Assembly to defend their respective budget.

In addition up till April (6 months after the budget submission), the Executive was still bringing new additions to the 2018 budget which the National Assembly in good faith and in the spirit of collaboration and harmonious working relationship accepted.

More importantly, the 2017 budget, was signed into law on June 5th, 2017 and by the provisions of Section 318 of the Constitution, which defines the Financial Year as “any period of 12 months beginning on the first day of January in any year, or other date as the National Assembly may prescribe” – the 2017 budget lapsed on the 5th of June 2018. This same provision is replicated in the 2017 Appropriation Act.

12. It is important to also note that if not for the fact that the 2017 budget elapsed on the 5th of June 2018, the Federal Government would not have recorded notable capital projects for the just ended financial year. This is because the Federal Government only started releasing funds for capital projects in December 2017 when the funds from the Federal Government’s loans were released and disbursed to contractors.

On the issue of an Organic Budget Law to improve the budgetary process, the proposed law is pending in the National Assembly and cannot be considered without the amendment of Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which gives the President the power to propose “estimates” at ANYTIME in the financial year. Nigerians need to know that during the last Constitutional Review exercise, the National Assembly in its wisdom amended this provision and it was approved by over two-thirds of the State Houses of Assembly.

The new Constitution Amendment requires the President to submit the budget not later than 90 days to the end of the financial year. As of today, the President has not yet signed this Constitutional Amendment Bill which would have helped us to have a proper budget alendar, which shall eventually lead to the realization of the proposed January to December budget cycle.

It was stated that the legislature made cuts amounting to N347 billion which were meant for 4,700 projects. Again, these reductions of N347 billion were made from low priority areas to higher priority areas to support the generation of employment for our youth by MSMEs.

We took the decision to reduce the funds in some areas in order to ensure balance and equity in the spread and utilization of our national funds. Additionally, the figures given amounts of the reductions made by the National Assembly were unduly exaggerated as we did not make any substantial reduction on any project to the extent of affecting its implementation.

To give the exact detail of the projects where we made deductions, it should be noted that the counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/Ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Express Road and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail ..Project, was reduced by only N3,956,400,290 – which represents only 1.78 % of the total N222,569,335,924 submitted by President Buhari. This left these projects with N218,612,935,634 which cannot negatively affect their implementation.

This obviously contradicts the claim that these projects lost “an aggregate of N11.5 billion”.

Specifically:
A. The counterpart Funding for 3050mw Mambilla Hydropower Project was reduced from N8.5billion to N8.2billion (a reduction of N300million);

B. The construction of the Second Niger bridge including access roads phases 2a and 2b in Anambra and Delta states and other projects in the South East were reduced from N10billion to N9.1billion (a reduction of N900million);

C. The construction of Bodo-Bonny road with a bridge across the Opobo channel in Rivers State was reduced from N10billion to N8.7billion (a reduction of N1.3billion);

D. The funding for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced from N20billion to N18billion (a reduction of N2billion), which would not significantly affect the construction of the road in one appropriations cycle;

E. The Railway Projects (Counterpart Funds):
1. Lagos-Kano (ongoing)
2. Calabar-Lagos (Ongoing)
3. Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Aladja (Warri) (Ongoing)
4. Port Harcourt- Maiduguri (New)
5. Kano-Katsina-Jibiya-Maradi in Niger Republic (New)
6. Abuja-Itakpe and Aladja (Warri)-Warri Port and Refinery including Warri new Harbour (New)
7. Bonny deep Sea Port & Port Harcourt of N162,284,335,924 was retained by the National Assembly as presented by Mr. President; and

F. The @nassnigeria increased the aggregate funding for the East-West Road from N11,285,000,000 to N12,085,000,000 because we realized the strategic importance of the road to the entire oil producing areas of our country & the fact that the road project has lingered for too long;

Addressing the issue of the Second Niger Bridge project, apart from early works, as of today, there is no existing contract for the Second Niger Bridge in spite of frequent requests from the National Assembly. The N900million reduced from the N10billion proposed by the Executive was deployed to fund ancillary roads that connect to the Bridge. It should again be noted that the N12.5billion and the N7.5billion appropriated for the Second Niger Bridge in the 2016 and 2017 budget by the National Assembly were never utilized for the project.

We also need to call the attention of the public to the fact that the National Assembly allocated an additional N2billion to the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway project. This was more than the Executive proposed.

As part of the implementation of the 2017 budget, the contracts for 15 roads were awarded by the Federal Executive Council with no budgetary provisions. Realizing the importance of these projects, the National Assembly decided to spread the N3.9billion saved from the earlier mentioned projects funding to facilitate the take-off of these projects that include: the rehabilitation of Ikorodu-Shagamu road in Lagos State; the rehabilitation of 9th Mile-Orakam to Benue Border; and the general maintenance of Pankshin – Ballang – Nyelleng – Sararele – Gindiri road in Plateau State, etc. These are the projects purported to be “project inclusions without conceptualization.” On these projects, the National Assembly needs to be commended by Mr. President for helping to support the take-off of these awarded but unfunded projects.

Furthermore, it was stated that the budget of the FCT was cut by N 7.5 billion. This is true. The legislators stand by this decision because, through its oversight of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the National Assembly discovered that in the 2016 and 2017 budget cycle, there was a severe non-performance of the budgetary allocations to the FCT. During the two years in question, over 50% of the funds that were allocated and released to the FCT were not utilized. These funds were ultimately returned to the treasury.

Hence, in order to ensure that scarce resources were allocated in accordance to ‘needs over wants’, funding for the FCT which has historically been under-utilised were allocated to other MDAs that have demonstrated the capacity to implement their allocation for the development of the nation and its people. It was part of the allocation that we spread over the roads for which contracts were awarded with no budgetary allocation.

On the provisions for strategic interventions in the health sector which were said to be cut by an aggregate of N7.45billion, it is on record that for the first time since the National Health Act was enacted in 2014, the National Assembly made provision of an additional N55billion for funding primary healthcare through the Basic Primary Healthcare Fund which will be sourced from 1% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Thus, contrary to the claim that the health sector suffered any budgetary cuts, we actually provided more funds that will make access to health services possible for over 180 million Nigerians.

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In a RUDE World, Organisations Are Learning to Stay CALM

Published

1 week ago

November 27, 2025

Admin

In an age shaped by volatility, rapid shifts and relentless uncertainty, experts are urging organisations to rethink the very foundations of how they understand and respond to risk. The global business terrain is no longer defined by tidy cycles or predictable patterns.

It has morphed into what analysts now describe as a RUDE world: Random, Unpredictable, Dynamic and Entropic. These forces, once mere academic abstractions, now sit at the heart of every crisis briefing and boardroom conversation.

The consequences of ignoring this reality have been played out repeatedly on the global stage. Companies that cling to reactive strategies find themselves swamped by disruptions that arrive faster and hit harder than anything prior generations endured. Financial shocks, supply chain collapses, cybersecurity breaches and sudden reputational storms have shown that risks rarely stay contained. They jump boundaries, multiply and collide in ways that defy traditional planning.

A growing body of thought argues that the strategic antidote is a CALM response. CALM, which stands for Consistent, Anticipatory, Logical and Measured, offers a deliberate move away from firefighting and towards resilient, disciplined decision making. It urges organisations to stop chasing crises and start building systems that can hold steady even when the world does not.

A new book on the subject crystallises this shift by presenting a panoramic map of organisational exposure: fifty distinct risk categories, grouped into seven interconnected families. Far from being a checklist of threats, this framework functions as a living ecosystem. It invites leaders to stop examining risk as isolated problems and instead see the company as an integrated organism where one failure can cascade into many.

Beyond offering structure, the fifty categories serve as a diagnostic lens that widens an organisation’s field of vision. Each category highlights a particular pressure point, but their real power emerges when viewed together. Patterns surface that no siloed team could detect alone. A technical risk may quietly trigger a reputational issue, which then influences regulatory exposure, which eventually feeds into operational disruption. The framework forces executives to confront an uncomfortable truth: vulnerabilities rarely travel alone. By mapping risks this way, organisations gain an early warning system that sharpens judgment, strengthens preparedness and transforms vague uncertainty into targeted, informed action.

The RUDE characteristics explain why this broader lens is essential. Randomness describes shocks that arrive without pattern, making historical trends all but useless. Unpredictability captures the sudden appearance of new forces, from emerging technologies to cultural shifts, that can upend an industry overnight. The dynamic nature of global systems ensures that a decision made in a single office can send tremors through an entire enterprise. Entropy, the most insidious of the four, reflects internal decay: wasted energy, fading accountability and the slow erosion of organisational purpose.

Each threat finds its counterbalance in the CALM disciplines. Consistency stabilises organisations against random shocks. Anticipation replaces uncertainty with informed foresight. Logic cuts through dynamic complexity with clarity. A measured approach resists the quiet drift into disorder.

The danger of ignoring this interconnectedness is illustrated most clearly in the anatomy of a cybersecurity breach. What begins as a technical problem quickly spirals into a legal battle, a reputational crisis, a financial strain and, ultimately, an internal cultural wound that erodes trust. Treating such a crisis as an IT issue alone blinds organisations to the wider fallout. This fragmentation is the hidden vulnerability of modern business, and it is precisely what the RUDE framework seeks to eliminate.

The authors argue that RUDE creates a shared language for institutions that have long struggled to speak across departmental divides. It exposes the threads that link one risk to another. Most importantly, it embeds foresight into everyday operations, allowing leaders to predict how a small disturbance could morph into a systemic threat.

The message resounding through the research is unequivocal. Risk management can no longer be confined to compliance manuals or crisis playbooks. In a RUDE world, risk is not only a hazard; it is a resource, a source of competitive intelligence and strategic advantage. A mature, integrated risk program becomes less like a brake and more like a steering wheel, guiding organisations with confidence through turbulence that once seemed uncontrollable.

For leaders determined not just to survive disruption but to navigate it with mastery, the shift from RUDE to CALM is emerging as a strategic necessity. The stormy future remains, but with the right framework, it becomes something that can be read, understood and navigated. The waves keep rising, yet the organisation learns how to sail.

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Voice of Emancipation: Can Our Kings Be Trusted?

Published

3 months ago

August 31, 2025

Eric

By Kayode Emola

For the umpteenth time, it is worth asking ourselves if our traditional rulers can be trusted to serve the interests of the Yoruba people. We recall how Afonja betrayed the Alaafin and sold Oyo-Ile to the Fulani prince Alimi. One would have thought our Yoruba people would have learnt a lot of lessons from that incident, but it feels like we’ve learnt nothing.

Recently, we have seen reports of villagers fleeing their communities in Babanle and other towns of Kwara State circulating on social media. One would have expected the whole world to be outraged, like in the case of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in France in 2015. Where the whole world rallied round the victims of that shooting, but alas, no one seems to be bothered enough to act. By now, we should have witnessed government forces moving into the communities in Kwara State to restore law and order. Giving the villagers succour in the comfort of their own homes.

However, everyone in Nigeria is silent as is it doesn’t affect them directly, emboldening the terrorists to continue their assaults on Yorubaland unchallenged. For other Yoruba people who do not live in the area, they couldn’t be bothered to cry out because danger seems far away in Kwara state and not in the suburban Yorubaland like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and other places like that.

Truth be told, if we can’t even cry out and be outraged about the numerous deaths that go unaccounted for, who do we expect to cry out on our behalf? The world will stay silent to our plight since we see the decimation of Yorubaland as the norm rather than something to act about.

The worst of it is the recent revelation that two monarchs in Kwara State are directly involved in the kidnapping and killings going on in the communities. The King of Alabe and Babanla is currently in police custody for their roles in terrorist activities going on in their domain. How can we be sure that several other monarchs are not causing similar havoc in their domains?

If two traditional leaders in Kwara are complicit in the atrocities going around them, how many more of our kings and chiefs are involved in criminal activities elsewhere? We have been crying that the Miyeti Allah cattle herders are killing innocent farmers on their own land and destroying their crops.

Instead of the Yoruba traditional leaders banding together, and looking for a lasting solution for their people, they sat on their hands doing nothing. As though if all the people are killed, they will have no subject to rule over.

Obviously, many of our kings and traditional rulers are in bed with these cattle herders, which is why this problem continues to fester. Many of our kings and their kinsmen are themselves the ones inviting the Fulani cattle herders to raise livestock for them, knowing that it is a profitable business.

Every single day, over eight thousand cows are being slaughtered in Lagos State, let alone other Yoruba states, making the trade one of the most profitable businesses outside of crude oil in Nigeria. Had the cattle herders conducted their business like any other businessperson in Nigeria, there wouldn’t have been any reason for clashes and the killings that go with it.

However, the fact that many Yoruba traditional leaders are the ones collecting bribes from these herders to roam the forest and bushes makes the matter a complicated one. How can a king who is entrusted with the safety of lives and properties in his domain be the same one who is endangering them?

Since we now know that many of our kings are themselves the ones putting the lives and properties of our people in peril. I believe it is time to put the spotlight on the custodian of our traditions and culture in check. We need to know those among them who are putting the lives and properties of their communities in danger and call them out.

As such, maybe we can bring some normalcy into our communities and protect the lives and properties of innocent people. If only we could do a statewide evangelism to see which of the kings and traditional rulers are involved with the cattle herders and the terrorists invading Yorubaland. Then we may be able to rid ourselves of the menace that is currently ripping the social fabric of Yorubaland into pieces bit by bit.

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Police Release Sowore after Two Days Detention

Published

4 months ago

August 8, 2025

Eric

Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has been released by the Nigerian police after being detained for two days.

Sowore, who confirmed his release on Friday evening, expressed gratitude to supporters, who stood by him during the ordeal.

In a statement on social media, he said: “Nigeria Police Force has capitulated to the demands of the revolutionary movt, I have been released from unjust, illegal & unwarranted detention. However, it is nothing to celebrate, but thank u for not giving up! #RevolutionNow.”

The activist, known for his unwavering criticism of government policies and advocacy for democratic reforms, has previously faced multiple arrests linked to his #RevolutionNow movement, which calls for sweeping political and economic changes in Nigeria.

His latest detention generated outrage from rights groups and civic activists, who demanded his immediate release and decried what they described as an attack on free speech and civic freedoms.

Sowore, however, thanked human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former presidential candidate Peter Obi, Deji Adeyanju, and all other stakeholders who stood up and called for his release.