Ndume laments rise in expenditure as Senate commences consideration of 2023 budget

By Tunde Opalana

As the Senate on Wednesday commenced debate on the 2023 Appropriation Bill, the chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume lamented the yearly increase in the expenditure component of Nigerian budget.

Considering the harsh economic situation and low turn of Nigeria’s economy, he said expenditure should be reducing.

The Borno lawmaker in his contribution at plenary advised his colleagues to critically consider the 2023 appropriation rather than expeditiously rush the passage to meet up with the December set deadline.

He said though Nigeria has witnessed an improved implementation of budget in recent years, there is need to scrutinize figures in the budget.

Addressing newsmen after plenary, Ndume called attention to continuous rate of recurrent expenditure and borrowing.

He said the recurrent expenditure in the 2023 proposal is about 43 percent.

Ndume wondered “why is expenditure still high since officially recruitment of workers has stopped since 2018.”

He said “in 2018, expenditure was N3.5 trillion, in 2019 it rose to N4.8 trillion, in 2020 to N5.9 trillion. Instead of going down, it is even higher in 2022 as it goes to N6.9 trillion while in the 2023 proposal, it is N8.2 trillion”.

The senator called for an investigation into the yearly rise in expenditure, asking the justification for continuous increase.

Ndune further said in the past five years “percentage of total amount of capital is less than 30 percent of the budget.

“The reverse should be the case, the capital supposed to be the highest, why are we borrowing to service debt.

“But the NASS is not interrogating this because NAS$ want to pass the budget expeditiously.

“It is our responsibility as lawmakers to ensure that every Kobo we spend must be accounted for.”

“Speedy consideration does not allow for adequate scrutiny of the proposals.

“We should not bow to pressure from Nigerians urging us to expeditiously pass the budget.”

Also, the chairman, Senate Committee on Army berated the N38 billion proposed for the Army in the 2023 appropriation bill saying it is grossly inadequate, considering the need to further tackle menace of insecurity in the country

“We are in a war situation and want to address insecurity but proposed N38 bn for Army, are we serious as a nation?.

Meanwhile, the Senate has suspended plenary till November 15 to allow for defence of budgetary proposals by ministries, agencies and departments of government.