ABDUL NINGI AND THE BUDGET PADDING SAGA

In the comfort of his most private moments, that is if he finds comfort anywhere or in anything these days, Abdul Ningi, the senator representing Bauchi Central in the National Assembly may be forced into a rethink. With the aid of a sober reflection, he may be compelled to lament the situation where he leveled allegations of budget padding at Nigeria’s premier legislative institution.

Could he have shown more respect? Did his fidelity to his constituents in Bauchi Central and the Senate where he is a ranking member warrant that he show more respect to authority?

In a country where heinous crimes are committed against millions of people under a hush by those in positions of power, maybe Abdul Ningi should have kept mute and kept his place at the fattening table.

Now that he has cupped himself a three month suspension from the powers that be in the Senate, he will surely have enough time for introspection and circumspection.

In Nigeria, the budget is everything. A behemoth bureaucratic bequest from which every other banquet big and small is arranged, the  annual budget is not as bogus as it implies or even as unwieldy. As a historic fiscal and macroenomic resource on which governments are run, the budget in Nigeria is the dizzying culmination of Nigeria’s public and private financial hopes.

It is usually drawn up at the Federal level by offices within the presidency and presented to the Legislature which approves it before it goes for implementation. If Nigeria is the way it is today, it is because between the creation of the budget, its presentation at the National Assembly, its approval and operation, too much violation happens to a document that should be the inviolable encapsulation of the people’s wish and will for an entire year.

What did Ningi say that has not been said previously? Budget padding, used to be a taboo word, but not anymore. It was discovered long ago that some Nigerian legislators  with  extensive networks in the  National  Assembly , and nothing but loyalty to their private pockets had perfected the art of stealing Nigerians blind by  manipulating the chief instrument of public finance. Their way of operation was to inflate the figures designated for projects in the budgets and channel the extra money to their private pockets. The chilling subterfuge was another powerful demonstration of the pervasive corruption crippling Nigeria.

So, when Ningi decided to exhume such an irritable corpse, he must have known what he was doing. Or did he?

Under an erratic leadership  whose  president joins issues on petty matters at funerals, insensibly  talks about money sent to  the accounts of his colleagues, and  unleashes routine gaffes, maybe Ningi should have held his horses for the time being whether he was truly against budget padding or was simply spoiling for a fight because the spoils  of the war against Nigerians had not got to him this time around.

The leadership of the Nigerian senate may feel embarrassed by Ningi’s utterances. Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President has described his actions as defying the authority of the Senate. It may be. But lest the senate argues that Ningi’s chilling revelations are an in-house matter, issues surrounding Nigeria’s budget, bogged down over the years by corruption, are very much public issues. Indeed, they take the nature of a public emergency. All those involved must be uncovered and punished.

Nigeria’s flawed federalism has done nothing but  cause problems for the country since a triumphant return to democracy in 1999. The executive has often proven itself grasping and greedy. The legislature has been all too easy to cow and manipulate. The judiciary has often seen its independence eroded by corruption and a lack of financial autonomy. All these have shaped into  a coup against the Nigerian people.

Nigerians have come to be defined more by hope than expectation. They barely expect anything good to come from their government. They just stay and hope that something good happens to them. This has become the fate of many people in Africa’s most populous country.

There is docility powered by resignation to a phantom powerlessness. This in turn emboldens those in positions of authority to act with irritating impunity, safe in the knowledge that nothing will happen to them.

This approach and counter-approach will colour the conversation over Senator Ningi’s weighty allegations in the next few days. From past experience, observers can conclude that the uproar will yield nothing in a country where impunity is the intimidating insignia of public office.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com