February 9, 2025
Politics

2025 budget: different strokes for different folks

By Haruna Salami

The 2025 Federal Government budget of N49.74 trillion, which is currently before the National Assembly has different striking features.

It was presented to the Joint Session of the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu on December 18, 2024, which is from past experiences, very late as 2024 edition was presented on November 29, 2023.

The last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was renowned for presenting the annual budget in October to allow the lawmakers consider and pass it before the end of the year for it run from January to December each year.

However, the late presentation of the 2025 Appropriation Bill has led to unprecedented rush by both chambers of the National Assembly, which has sacrificed the much needed attention to details, as it said “the devil is in the details”.

On their part, the lawmakers adopted joint sitting of their standing committees to fast track the process of the budget defence by the various ministries departments and agencies (MDAs) of government.

Unfortunately, the 2025 budget defence of the various MDAs before the National Assembly Joint Committees witnessed some disturbing features.

The exercise had different strokes for different folks as some MDAs were pampered while others were intimidated, had the presentation rejected and made to reappear.

One of the most dramatic episodes was that of the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) which appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) for budget defence.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada (Nasarawa West) had on Tuesday January 21 asked the Auditor-General for the Federation, Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira to go back and address some observed lapses in the budgetary proposals and return on Thursday January 23 to make presentation to the committee.

In line with the directive, the Auditor-General, at the re-presentation of the budgetary proposal to the committee on Thursday got more knocks as a senator described his presentation as “ridiculous”, adding that Mr. Chira was “not serious”.

However, the committee requested for an executive/closed door session with the Audio-General and in less than 10 minutes the press was called back and the Chairman announced that the Committee has approved the 2025 budget for OAuGF.

Senator Wadada, in his remarks said “the grey areas observed in the 2025 budget proposal presented by the Office of Auditor General of the Federation on Tuesday this week, have been addressed and cleared as clearly seen in the one presented today.

“Accordingly, this committee has resolved to approve the budget for onward submission to the appropriation committee.

“Auditor-General is more or less a member of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts and by extension, that of the House of Representatives whose budget should be given required attention it deserves”.

Only God knew what transpired in the executive session that resolved, in less than 10 minutes, the problem that lingered for more than 48 hours.

The budget defence of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance is another case of dramatic u-turn by the National Assembly.

On Monday January 20, the Committee, during budget defence session, the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede had with it, alleged that the examination body spent N1.1billion on meal, N850million for fumigation etc, which according to it were “outrageous”.

The JAMB Registrar made spirited effort to explain how the alleged expenditures were incurred, he was prevented from doing so, but asked to furnish the committee with details of its budgetary appropriation and spending in 2024 and 2025.

However, 48 hours after, the Chairman of the Joint Committee, in a statement he personal signed said Oloyede and JAMB were wrongly accused of reckless spending based on latest documents submitted to the committee by JAMB.

The statement titled “Clarification on the JAMB Report on Revenue”, reads: “For the purpose of clarity, the comprehensive report provided by JAMB indicates that the line items mentioned during Monday’s hearing on revenue do not suggest any mismanagement or misuse of the Board’s funds.

“On the contrary, the report highlights the responsible and prudent use of resources under the leadership of the Registrar.

“The Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, deserves commendation for demonstrating financial discipline and accountability in managing the Board’s resources effectively.

“This level of stewardship serves as a model for public institutions across the nation”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Budget session with the Joint Committee on Electoral Matter was unique too.

In 2024, INEC was allocated the sum of N40 billion, but the Chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is requesting N126 billion in the 2025 proposal.

Yakubu, however was not begging the lawmakers, but instead requested for a retreat somewhere outside Abuja to discuss and make the lawmakers understand that the conduct of elections has become a “big burden”.

READ ALSO: I won’t disclose my strategies, but I’m…

The INEC boss’s position is clear: all the lawmakers will soon run to the electoral umpire to seek re-election, in addition to bye elections occasioned by either death of any elected officer in the State House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, etc.

The budget defence of the Judiciary is instructive in many ways. Unlike other MDAs, the Joint Committee ordered camera out of the hall.

When that was accomplished, the presentations, from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Federal High Court to the Federal Capital Territory High Court, it was the same story.

There was almost 100% release for personnel, overhead and capital, just it was 100% implementation for all the components.

Surprisingly, the same lawmakers who grilled other MDAs, suddenly became dumb as they know that the same judges sit on their cases from election petition tribunal to the Court of Appeal where the case of a lawmaker terminated by law.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL’s) budget defence was also remarkable as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mele Kyari’s bold statement or claim that the oil giant remitted N10 trillion to consolidated revenue fund (CRF) in 2024 was good news to the lawmakers.

Kyari also told the committee that NNPCL is the only company that publishes it’s full financial report annually and paying all the taxes according to the law.

The unique features of military budget defence is the secrecy that surrounds it, understandably due to security implications.

Apart from opening remarks of the committee chairmen, the rest was behind close door for all the services and their formations.

One recurrent issue in the 2025 budget defence so far is the fact that all the MDAs, including the State House, complained of inadequate funding and lawmakers were making cases for increased allocation to them, not minding from where will the funds come.

The Federal Government has adopted an envelope system of budgeting, which means the government gives the agencies money, not according to their needs, but according to what is available. The MDAs then manages what is available by prioritizing their needs.

From all indications, the 2025 budget scheduled to be passed on January 31, 2025 can no longer meet that target as the resumption of plenary earlier scheduled for Tuesday 28 January has been shifted to February 4, 2025.

It is during plenary session that the Appropriation Bill can be passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply