Politics

Nigeria’s Presidency denies alleged budget manipulations as legislators meet over claims

Published

2 months ago

March 11, 2024

Nigeria’s Presidency has denied allegations of manipulating the 2024 budget to the tune of an additional N3 trillion, a practice known as “budget padding” in the Nigerian political lexicon.

The denial follows allegations made by federal lawmaker, Senator Abdul Ningi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party, that the administration was implementing a budget that was different from the one that was authorised on January 1, 2024.

In an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, Ningi, acting on behalf of the Northern Senators’ Forum, said that President Bola Tinubu’s Federal Government was operating on a budget that was much larger than what the NASS had approved.

The legislature claims that instead of the N28.7tn budget that is currently in effect, a N25tn budget was discussed and approved.

The Senate had announced that it would convene to discuss the issue on Tuesday, utilising its internal procedures and oversight framework.

The President’s Special Advisor on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, signed a statement on behalf of the Presidency, characterising Ningi’s assertions as “false” and stating that Tinubu had first submitted a N27.5tn budget to the National Assembly on November 29, 2023.

Contrary to Ningi’s statements, it stated that this budget included N9.92 trillion for recurrent expenses, N8.25 trillion for debt payment, and N8.7 trillion for capital expenditures. The President highlighted how unlikely it was that the Senate would have discussed and approved a $25 trillion budget that was never made available.

“Contrary to the strange view expressed by Senator Ningi, there was no way the Senate could have debated and passed a N25 trillion budget that was not presented to the National Assembly.

“We don’t expect a ranking senator not to pay due attention to details before making wild claims.

“It is also important to let Nigerians know that the budget that President Tinubu signed into law on January 1, 2024, as passed by the National Assembly, was N28.7 trillion,” Onanuga insisted.

Related Topics:Budget Padding Featured Nigeria

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

3 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.