CSOs Want Senate Appropriation Committee Chairman Sacked over Alleged Budget Padding

Civil society groups under the aegis of Guidance of Democracy and Development Initiative (GDDI) and Partners for Legislative Agenda in Nigeria (PLAN) have called for the sack of the Chairman Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Senator Barau Jibrin over alleged budget padding.

The leaders of the groups, Comrade Danesi Momoh, Prince of GDDI, and Mr. Igwe Ude-Umanta of PLAN, said Jibrin’s continuous leadership of such a sensitive committee was at variance with the All Progressives Congress (APC) anti-corruption crusade.

The groups insisted that the Kano Senator could not remain the chairman of the committee in the face of the report of his alleged involvement in budget padding.
The groups said it was therefore incumbent on the Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan to rise to the moral and patriotic occasion before him.

They said: “The 2020 Appropriation Act is full of padded expenditures which have now been pronounced by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as failing in all the integrity tests of accepted procedures in procurement and an aberration to the provisions of the Procurement Act.

”In the reported Constituency and Executive Tracking Exercise Phase 3 Report of the ICPC, it has become obvious that Senator Barau Jibrin has bestrode our national budget as a monstrous colossus, creating expenditures that can only be criminally explained, or accounted for.

“We are very saddened about the manifestation of corruption in Nigeria in its instituted forms. At a period of undeniable economic downturn and financial austerity for the federal government, it is suffocating to live with the fact that as long as a character like Senator Barau Jibrin chairs the appropriation committee of the Senate, budget padding will be the order of the day.”

The groups noted that expectedly, the senator has not denied the allegations in the ICPC report against him, adding, “a man who is found to have grossly abused our national budget should not by any moral compass be allowed to continue to superintend over the legislative scrutiny of our national budget.”
Meanwhile, a group under the umbrella of Civil Society Organisations for Transparency and Accountability (CSOTA) has passed a vote of confidence on Jibrin.

Taking another protest to the same National Assembly in Abuja, the Spokesperson for the group, Mr. Sunday Attah, described the group of protesters that protested at the gate of the National Assembly as “miscreants, hired and sponsored” by some politicians to discredit the Jibrin.

He said: “It’s on record that Senator Barau Jibrin alongside his colleagues worked hard to deliver the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda of returning the nation’s budgetary system to January-December budget cycle. Nigerians are happy with this great feat achieved by these credible Nigerians, which has no doubt brought transparency and accountability in our budget system.

“We make bold to say that, under the distinguished leadership of Senator Barau Jibrin the padding of budgets has become a thing of the past and transparency, openness and accountability is the order of the day.

“It’s on this note that we wish to pass a vote of confidence on the leadership of Senator Barau Jibrin. And we urge him to stay focused and continue to do his good work for the betterment of the country and shouldn’t allow himself to be intimidated by hired urchins and political detractors.”