Investigations have revealed that certain institutions and senatorial districts, with influential representatives in both the National Assembly and executive arms of government, manipulate the national budget to their advantage.
An analysis of the 2024 national budget has exposed disparities, with some senatorial districts receiving as low as N6-7 billion, while others, such as Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, home to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, received a substantial N21 billion allocation from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs alone.
Within the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Women Affairs, over 20 new project items were introduced, ostensibly to serve specific interests.
Under the Ministry of Agriculture, peculiar budget items such as the construction of rural roads and markets in Akwa-Ibom North-West, totalling N18.5 billion, were proposed in the budget.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Women Affairs introduced four new items to empower women in the Senate President’s constituency.
Notably, N2.5 billion is allocated for women’s empowerment initiatives, including provisions for deep freezers and generators across ten local governments, with N250 million earmarked for each local government.
Detailed allocations also include N1 billion for the construction of rural farm roads in various local governments within the senatorial district, alongside N500 million for the installation of solar street lights in towns.
In addition, there are plans for the rehabilitation of roads, installation of transformers, and erosion control measures, amounting to billions of naira, aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity and infrastructure development in the region.
Items on the list of the Ministry of Agriculture include the proposed construction of rural farm roads in Ikono & Abak of Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial, which will cost the government a total of N1 billion.
Another N1 billion is budgeted for the construction of rural farm roads in Essien & Etim expo of Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district at N500m per LGA to make a total of N1 billion.
The proposed construction of new rural farm roads in Ika & Ikot Ekpene of the same constituency at N500 million per LGA will cost another N1 billion, with the construction of rural farm roads in Ini & Obot of the senatorial district at N500 million to cost a total of N1 billion.
Aside from that, the construction of rural farm roads in Orun Anam & Ukanafun of Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district costs N500 million per LGA, bringing it to a total of N1 billion.
In a different provision, the government has planned to spend N500 million for the fabrication and lighting of all rural farm roads with one new standard solar street light in all the towns in Ikono & Abak LGA of Akwa Ibom State, besides the N500 million that has been earmarked for the fabrication and lighting of all rural farm roads with one new standard solar street light in towns in Essien & Etim Ekpo LGA of the state.
The ministry of agriculture will also spend N500 million for the fabrication and lighting of all rural farm roads with one new standard solar street light in towns in Ika & Ikot Ekpene LGA of Akwa Ibom State that were governed by Akpabio for eight years.
In that same regard, the fabrication and lighting of all rural farm roads with all-in-one new standard solar street lights in towns in Orun Anam & Ukanafun LGA of the state is to cost the government another N500 million.
If Senator Akpabio can lobby the relevant financial departments of government to do his bidding, he will get the agric ministry to implement the rehabilitation of “selected roads and installation of new transformers and cables in different towns” in Ikono & Abak local governments of North-West senatorial district of Akwa Ibom at the cost of N1 billion.
The ministry has also voted N1 billion for the rehabilitation of selected roads and the installation of new transformers and cables in different towns in Essien & Etim ekpo local governments of the senatorial zone at the cost of N1 billion.
Unlike other senators, Akpabio’s constituency has got the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to budget for the rehabilitation of selected roads and the installation of new transformers and cables in different towns in Ika & Ikot Ekpene local governmentss of North West senatorial district of Akwa Ibom. That would cost N1 billion.
Another list of items in the budget for his constituency is the proposed rehabilitation of selected roads and the installation of new transformers and cables in different towns in Ini & Obot local governments of the state at an estimated cost of N500 million.
There is a new plan for the rehabilitation of selected roads and the installation of new transformers and cables in different towns in Orun Anam & Ukanafun local governments of North West Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom worth N1 billion.
The long list also includes the planned construction of Ibiakpan-Not Akan road to boost agricultural output in Akwa Ibom State at the rate of N1 billion, with the “construction of Ikot Uko road and Ikot Ebak at N500m each to aid the movement of fishery produce in Akwa Ibom State” for a total of N1 billion.
There is also the provision of N1.5 billion for erosion control in some parts of Abiakpo, Ikot Essien aci-aikono to ease the movement of farm produce which is a new item on the budget, with the construction of internal roads at various communities in the senatorial district to take N1.5 billion.
The ministry has also planned the construction of markets in various communities in Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district at a cost of N1 billion.
In detail, the Ministry of Women Affairs budget showed that Essien & Etim Ekpo got N500 million; Ikono & Abak, N500 million; Ika & Ikot Ekpene, N500 million, and Ini & Obot will also get N500 million for women empowerment. Another N500 million was earmarked for the empowerment of women with deep freezers, generators and other empowerment items to boost their daily earnings in the two local governments of Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district at N250 million each (Orun Anam & Ukanafun).
Call for Akpabio’s resignation morally reprehensible – Senate
However, the Senate has described the call for the resignation of Senate President Godswill Akpabio as morally reprehensible.
By his position, Senator Akpabio is the chairman of the National Assembly.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for calling for the resignation of Senator Akpabio over the unfounded claim of N3.7trn budget padding allegations by the suspended Senator representing Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi.
Adaramodu said the PDP had elevated chicanery to statecraft and fatally failed in their sordid attempt to hoodwink the unsuspecting public, on the ineffectual but spurious allegations of budget padding.
“The party’s ludicrous call for the resignation of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the Senate President is unthinkable and shows the party as a massaging balm for falsehood and immoral Legislative outbursts,” he stated, adding “that Akpabio will not resign and has no intention to resign at any time because he has not committed any wrong doing to warrant a resignation”.
According to him, it is shocking that the PDP leadership could not comprehend what transpired at Tuesday’s plenary where the allegations were debated and Senator Abdul Ningi, who was given the ample opportunity to defend himself and prove the budget padding allegations, was suspended after he failed to substantiate his claims in the full glare of the public.
He said, “Contrary to the contention by the PDP that N3.7 trillion was discreetly inserted into the 2024 budget for alleged non-existent projects, and what transpired on the floor of the Chamber, it is open knowledge that no such absurdity is found in the budget passed by the National Assembly and signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which is being implemented judiciously by the federal government. Perhaps, the N3.7trn being mentioned in the PDP’s shocking statement exists only in the fickle minds of its purveyors and serves as a dubious version of the budget generated by PDP’s unidentified political flying objects.”