Northern Senators Disown Ningi, Say 2024 Budget Not Padded

Adoga Stephen
By Adoga Stephen - Editor-In-Chief
4 Min Read

Northern Senators Forum (NSF) members have distanced themselves from Senator Abdul Ningi’s recent comments about the 2024 budget.

Ningi, who is also the chairman of the NAF, claimed in an interview that the Bola Tinubu-led federal government is working with two versions of the budget.

The Presidency has denied these allegations. Ningi also accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of including projects worth over N3 billion in the budget.

However, in a statement released on Monday, the NSF made it clear that Ningi’s claims about the 2024 budget were his own and not representative of the group.

The group stated that Ningi expressed “his personal opinion, sentiment and unfortunately skewed, incorrect and misleading.”

There was never a meeting where they instructed Senator Ningi to speak to the press about the issue.

The statement partly reads: “That the budget was presented to the National Assembly during a joint session of the two chambers—the Senate and House of Representatives by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on November 29, 2023, in line with the requirements of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The both chambers of the National Assembly diligently and meticulously debated, processed, and passed the proposal of the President. And satisfied with it, the President assented to it.

“It is clear that Mr President presented a budget of N27. 5 trillion to the National Assembly and the Assembly passed a budget of N28.7 trillion based on the need to make increases or decreases in the appropriations of the various MDAs which is in tandem with the legislative powers of the National Assembly in order to address critical projects and services across various sectors.

“Therefore, the statement made by Senator Ningi that the 2024 budget presented to the National Assembly by Mr President was the sum of N25 trillion was not correct, and that should not be taken as the position of the Northern Senators Forum.

“That to the best of our knowledge, there was no budget padding, whatsoever that was done to the 2024 budget. The assertion by Senator Ningi that certain things were done to the bill is his personal opinion. It is not the view of the generality of us, the Northern Senators.

“Hence, we strongly and collectively dissociate ourselves from his action, which was grossly unparliamentary.

“That, we, the Northern Senators, are solidly behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we will continue to support him to succeed in addressing the challenges facing our country. Nigeria, at this particular moment, does not need ethnic sentiments but collaborations of all to bring prosperity to our beloved country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We will continue to work with our brothers and sisters from the southern part of the country to move our country forward for the benefit of all and sundry.”

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Stephen studied Mass Communication at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu (now Lagos State University of Science and Technology), where he acquired requisite training for the practice of journalism. He loves the media, and his interest mostly lies in print medium, where his creative writing skill makes him a perfect fit.