Hardship: Greedy Lawmakers Share N3trn, More Than Education, Health Budget

Senators, House Of Reps Share N3trn, More than Education, Health Budget

Members of the Nigerian National Assembly have come under serious attack from not a few Nigerians, for allegedly sharing over N3 trillion among themselves.

The money is from the 2024 Budget signed in December by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The report that the lawmakers shared the humungous funds among themselves first broke on Monday this week, after Senator Abdul Ningi alleged that the budget was padded with over N3 trillion.

Other reports later claimed that Senator President Godswill Akpabio allegedly received the highest from the amount padded into the budget by the lawmakers after they received it from President Tinubu last year.

Nigerians are unhappy that such huge amount is not tied to projects, infrastructure and programmes capable of transforming the lives of the people.

The anger is fueled more by the hardship many Nigerians are going through due to the harsh economic policies introduced by the current administration.

In recent weeks, some angry and hungry Nigerians have taken over the streets, attacking trucks carrying food items in other to feed themselves.

The money padded into the budget, and now been allegedly shared by the lawmakers, according to analysts can go a long way to ameliorate the current hardship in the country.

For instance, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election Peter Obi, said the funds should have been channeled into critical areas such as education and health sectors which seriously requires such for a turn around.

He explained that the N3 trillion allegedly siphoned by the lawmakers is more than what was allocated for education and health in the 2024 budget.

“I had particularly elucidated in my earlier comment on what we can use the N3 trillion to achieve, by showing that it is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined,” Obi said in a statement on his X handle on Wednesday.

The main opposition voice in the country further stated that Obi further stated, “Now that the executive arm has accepted that the padded amount is only N1.2 trillion, it is still a very significant amount, when you consider that it is almost 5 times the N251.47 billion proposed for Universal Basic Education, which is the foundation of education, in the country.

“Today in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the basic level.”

He said the lawmakers owe Nigerians explanation on whether Senator Ningi allegation was true, stating that they cannot afford to slip the issue under the carpet.

Following the report, Senator Ningi was suspended by the Senate for three months.

Meanwhile, his party the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Bauchi state government have thrown their weight behind the senator, saying cutting of the neck to spite the face was not the solution to the allegation by Ningi that few lawmakers are sharing among themselves what should have been used for the benefit of the over 200 million Nigerians.

Many Nigerians are calling on the 360 House of Reps members and the 109 senators to come clean of the allegation.