Senator Shehu Sani, former federal legislator has given fresh and insightful explanations on how members of the National Assembly indulge in budget padding or manipulation, annually.
Budget padding since the advent of this democracy has become a popular phrase commonly used to describe illegal inflation of budgetary figures with impunity by especially members of the National Assembly.
However, lawmakers have hypocritically hidden under the power of appropriation given to them by the 1999 Constitution (as amended), to perpetuate such acts of disgraceful criminality.
However, Senator Sani, who represented Kaduna Central as a member of the 8th Senate between 2015 and 2019, said not a few Nigerians only hear about ‘budget padding’ but don’t actually know the meaning.
The former lawmaker took to his X handle (formerly Twitter) on Thursday to give a graphical explanation about budget padding. This is obviously in apparent reaction to the unfolding drama in the current Senate, leading to the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi representing Bauchi Central, on Tuesday. Ningi in an interview with BBC Hausa news service had claimed that the 2024 budget was padded to the tune of N3trillion, among other allegations against the Senate leadership under Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Shehu Sani wrote: “Many people hear about padding but don’t actually know what it means: Padding budget means tampering with the budget presented by the President or the MDAs by either adding figures to the costs of projects or by inserting projects that were not in the original budget presented.
“For example, a Minister can say he wants to buy 5 Buckets for his ministry at 5k each; magically, he will see 8 Buckets approved for him or 5 Buckets approved at the rate of 10k each or he will see Shovels and diggers added to his request for Buckets.”
