ALLEGED BUDGET PADDING: ANALYST SLAMS NIGERIA’S OPPOSITION FOR SPECTACULAR FAILURE
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By Oduola F.A.
Professor Okey Ikechukwu, Executive Director of Development Specs Academy, condemned the poor performance of opposition parties in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise on Saturday, Ikechukwu responded to allegations of 2025 budget padding, describing the opposition as “spectacularly lacking in capacity.”
A non-governmental organisation, BudgIT, had raised the alarm over the alleged unlawful insertion of projects in the 2025 budget.
In a statement signed by a Senior Communications Associate, Nancy Odimegwu, on Tuesday, it said, “BudgIT, a prominent civic tech organisation promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s public finance, has uncovered 11,122 projects valued as ₦6.93 trillion inserted by the National Assembly into the 2025 Federal Government budget.”
However, Okechukwu lamented that the opposition has not lived up to its responsibility in assessing the budget.
He said, “The political opposition in this country has been performing with a spectacular lack of capacity. They make press releases to grumble about something.
“This is the kind of thing of which you will gather the data, gather professionals or consultants around you, address the nation, give a state-of-the-nation address.
“And national resources for the year 2024 were put together in the name of the people and for the people by those who represent them. Out of that quantity, this has not been implemented.
“What we’re hearing from BudgIT now should have come from the opposition, civil society organisations, concerned citizens, etc.”
The public affairs analyst, however, called for better collaboration among civil society organisations and media to promote accountability by government institutions.
“Have we asked ourselves whether the average Nigerian knows there’s a budget, whether he will feel bad if there’s none, whether if you don’t do a budget for the next three years, anybody will complain substantively? So, there are so many things that need to be drilled down that’s not happening,” he added.
He also said that the alleged insertion in the budget was unlawful in principle.
“First of all, procedurally and in principle, it is not right that this should happen. Secondly, even insertions should be negotiated and agreed upon. But because interest is alleged not to be the primary driver of some of these interventions, you find out that they stick out like a sore thumb, not only that, like BudgIT has found out, you can’t find their social value and in the end, it’s like the name of the people is being taken in vain and plain robbery is being carried out,” he added.
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