As Senate Moves to Protect Its Integrity...
The tension generated by the crisis of confidence spearheaded against the Senate by Senator Abdul Ningi was finally doused on Tuesday with the three months suspension slammed on him. Sunday Aborisade captures the drama.
The Senate was thrown into confusion last weekend when reports of the interview granted by the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Abdul Ningi, to the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation was published in many Nigerian media platforms.
Ningi, a Peoples Democratic Party member representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, had in the interview alleged that the country was implementing two budgets.
He claimed that the National Assembly, after deliberating on the report of its Committee on Appropriation, which he is a member, on December 30 last year, passed a budget of N25 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year.
According to him, a team of financial experts hired by him on behalf of his colleagues in the NSF and paid N30million had discovered that the administration of President Bola Tinubu had inserted a whooping N3 trillion into the budget.
The Senator argued that the amount, which had shot the budget to N28trn was not attached to any project neither was the location where the projects were cited provided.
He further alleged in the BBC interview that the projects contained in the 2024 Appropriation Act were skewed towards the Southern part of the country, suggesting that Tinubu was executing anti-North agenda.
The Presidency, through the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga and the Spokesperson for the Senate, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, instantly denied both allegations.
In separate statements on the issue, both Onanuga and Adaramodu, clarified that the Federal Government was operating only one budget, which contained N28.77trn passed by the National Assembly and subsequently signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
They wondered why Ningi deliberately chose to misinform members of the public despite knowing that there was never a time the apex legislative institution passed a budget that contained N25trn.
For the avoidance of doubt, Onanuga and Adaramodu, explained that President Tinubu proposed N27.5trn to the National Assembly as the 2024 budget and that the National Assembly, using its powers of Appropriation, increased the amount by N1.2trn, raising the total sum to N28.7trn.
Despite the detailed explanation provided by the spokespersons to the President and the Senate, Ningi addressed journalists on Monday and followed it up with an appearance at the Arise News Channel where he maintained his earlier position during the BBC interview that N3trn was indeed inserted into the budget and that projects it was meant to fund were not captured anywhere in the fiscal document.
Also on Monday, three Senators – Steve Sunday Karimi (Kogi West), Titus Tartenger Zam (Benue North West) and Kaka Sheu (Borno North) - said the allegation of budget padding by Ningi, was unfounded, baseless and a figment of his imagination.
The Senators warned against what they described as the antics of blackmailers bent on creating an atmosphere of crisis in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.
Karimi, Zam and Sheu, in different interviews said they spoke on behalf of the Northern Senators’ Forum.
They also said no room should be allowed for division and acrimony between Senators from the North and South by those who may not want to accord priority to national unity and harmony.
Other members of the Northern Senators Forum in another statement on Monday, disowned Ningi and claimed that they were never part of the decision to hire any consultant, neither did they subscribe to his claims that Tinubu was executing anti-North agenda.
The statement was signed by Senators Aminu Iyal Abass (Adamawa) and Ibrahim Bomoi (Yobestate)forNortheast;AbdulazizYar’Adua (Katsina) and Lawal Adamu Usman (Kaduna) for Northwest; and Jibrin Isah (Kogi), Diket Plang (Plateau) and Saliu Mustapha (Kwara) for the North Central zone.
Part of their joint statement read, “We, the undersigned on behalf of the Senators from the 19 northern states and the FCT, under the aegis of Northern Senators Forum (NSF), hereby state that Senator Ahmed Abdul Ningi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bauchi Central Senatorial District, who also happens to be the chairman of our forum, was on his own in the claims he made on the BBC Hausa Service on the 2024 budget.
“As such, the views he expressed was his personal opinion, sentiment and unfortunately skewed, incorrect and misleading. There was never a time where we held a meeting and mandated Senator Ningi to address the press on the said matter.
Also, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, a member of the Senate Appropriation Committee who also chaired the Committee on Inter-paliamentary Affairs, insisted that the presidency was not operating two budgets.
Ibrahim, at a news conference in Abuja also on Monday, said Ningi made false allegations and that his outburst were causing uncomfortable pains to the integrity of the entire members of the National Assembly.
He, therefore, called on the Inspector General of the Police, Kayode Egbetokun, “to charge Ningi for criminal information and conduct likely to cause breach of peace”.
According to him: “What Ningi said is very embarrassing. We in the 10th Senate will not just fold our hands.
“The Senate approved only one appropriation for 2024. We never approved two. The Presidency of Nigeria cannot operate two budgets.
“Senator Ningi made this false information and it is unacceptable, it is causing uncomfortable pains to our integrity and the integrity of our children and family because people read it all over the world and raising questions.
“I have decided as a Senator representing the good people of Ondo South to ask the IGP to, as a matter of urgency, charge Ningi for criminal misinformation and conduct likely to cause breach of peace.
“If the Senate will not move to do that in the next seven days. I will write a letter, and I have started that, to the IGP to investigate circumstances leading to approval of two appropriation and bring the culprits to book.
“If the IGP will not do it, I will ask for the order of mandamus to compel a public officer to do that.
“The rightful thing was for him to tender an apology to the Senate and his colleagues instead of going to the Senate President to complain”.
Those who arrived early for Tuesday’s Senate plenary knew that it would be filled with drama.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, got to the Chamber earlier and appeared visibly angry.
The managers of the Senate Chamber had initially cleared the gallery obviously sensing that the session would be held behind closed doors because of the tension that the matter had generated.
“No close door session. It must be open,” Adeola said.
Shortly after that, Sunday Karimi, senator representing Kogi west, walked up to his seat and they both engaged in a conversation.
The decision to suspend the Peoples Democratic Party member representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, was sequel to a motion moved by Adeola. The All Progressives Congress member from Ogun West Senatorial District, said Ningi breached his privilege when he accused the Senate of padding the 2023 National Budget with over N3trn. He also said the embattled Senator claimed in an interview he granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that projects in the 2024 National Budget was skewed towards the southern part of Nigeria. Adeola in his motion drew the attention of his colleagues to Ningi’s claims that a team of financial experts hired by the NSF had discovered that N3.7trn in the budget could not be traced to any project neither was the location indicated.
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