By Azu Ishiekwene
The grave is never satisfied, but other things compete with it for insatiability. I can’t help feeling that some members of Nigeria’s National Assembly will vie for the top place of never enough with the grave, water and fire. Enough is a stranger to them. What happens in these chambers in Abuja, in the name of the people, only God knows.
That’s not to suggest that other arms of government are significantly better. But when we reach the point where we have to decide whose greed is eating us more, then we’re in trouble.
Last week, the Senate Committee on the North Central Development Commission (NCDC) said it had approved N140 billion for the commission in the 2025 fiscal year, which has three months remaining.
Yielding to overcome
The commission, which couldn’t wait to be born in February, obviously cannot also wait to get its own share of the national cake. Coming after the establishment of development commissions in the North East and North West, and well ahead of the promise of similar commissions in three other regions, the NCDC is enjoying the benefit of copying all the bad habits of the existing ones and setting a higher standard of crookedness for others to follow.
And in the “rub-my-back-I-rub-yours” politics of the National Assembly, the management of the NCDC can count on Abuja politicians for help. That explains why the Senate Committee approved N140 billion with the charm of a smitten lover.
“After a careful look at the issues contained in the budget,” the committee chairman, Titus Zam (from Benue State) said, “and the eloquent presentation by the MD and his team, the committee has approved the budget of N140 billion as presented by the commission.”
Devil in the detail
According to the press reports, the budget has now been forwarded to the House committee. Still, we do not have the details of the MD’s “eloquent presentation.” We are also not told of the extent of scrutiny by the Senate committee – only that the committee was so impressed it may well have approved the N140 billion for three months blindfolded.
But the details provided in the LEADERSHIP report of Friday, October 3, capture the elephant in the room. It gives details of the three-month budget, with an imprint all over of the type of concession typically made when parties are in an overwhelmingly delicate position behind closed doors.
According to LEADERSHIP’s report, the commission will receive N10 billion for cars, N9 billion for travels, and N1.2 billion for telephone calls, apart from its claim to spend N6 billion on unnamed “humanitarian projects.”
The percentage of capital expenditure to the total budget is 41.6 percent, with recurrent spending accounting for 58.3 percent. Nearly eight percent of the total budget is for travel to the moon and back.
Chasing shadows
It’s possible to argue that the current executive of the NCDC did not prepare this scandalous budget; that it was part of the 2025 budget prepared by the Executive before the inauguration of the board, and passed by the National Assembly.
In other words, the Executive laid the foundation for this monstrosity by voting billions of naira in advance for a non-existent commission based on estimates. What the executive may have done was to remove N5.6 billion from the appropriation of the North West Development Commission (NWDC), which had a vote of N145.6 billion and assigned the balance to the NCDC, with little or zero presence of mind to size (there are seven states in the North West compared with six in the North Central), or population (the North West, by some estimates is twice the population of the North Central). The jury is out on which of the two zones has been more badly impacted by insurgency.
If it has taken the commission nine months after it was formed to get a board, and with only three months to the end of this year, why railroad the commission’s budget when it would also be appropriated for in the 2026 budget?
Just spend it!
If the Senate committee is genuinely interested in oversight and nothing else, why not review the budget, as it has only a few months left of its lifecycle, and let the new board make and defend its subsequent request in the 2026 budget?
This eloquent scandal was not a mistake. It was intentional, with some assistance from all the interested parties, including civil servants in the National Assembly, who may have even secured contracts for the supply of the N10 billion SUVs or awarded contracts for “humanitarian services” once the budget was approved.
The committee and the new board know that anything that subjects this oversized budget to scrutiny is not good for “rub-my-back-I-rub-yours.” So, if money has been appropriated, why bother about the details? Just spend it!
It’s the sort of reckless spending that dragged the North East Development Commission (NEDC) into a needless controversy over whether or not a former secretary to the Government of the Federation used N544 million for grass cutting.
Too much money and a lack of common sense are why various intervention agencies across the country have lost their way, serving politicians and their greed instead of the citizens in whose name they were established. Yet, it’s never enough!
Is the leadership of either chamber seriously interested in curtailing this mess? Perhaps. And you only need to follow the money to know why.
In the name of the constituency
Insiders informed me that while each Rep receives N1 billion for constituency projects and a senator gets N2 billion, the leaders each appropriate eloquent sums ranging from N19 billion to N120 billion. And once the leaders have helped themselves and secured their constituency allocation from the budget, they leave the rank and file to use so-called oversight functions as toll gates.
This nonsense cannot continue. There is more than enough to reward politicians genuinely interested in service, but not enough to feed their greed, after which we might be next on their menu list.
Eyes on the House
The House committee for reviewing the budget cannot afford to be a rubber stamp. Committee members may be tempted to argue that the sum is already included in the 2025 budget and should therefore be approved as is. That is wrong and can only be a calculated move to serve members’ interest, rather than those of the people of the North Central, who are neither on the speed dial for the N1.2 billion set aside for phone calls nor the N10 billion for cars.
The National Assembly, through the House, is getting one more chance to redeem itself from the eloquent scandal charmingly expressed by the Senate committee chairman. Let’s see what happens.
Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book Writing for Media and Monetising It.
