Presidency refutes allegations of budget padding

According to reports, the Presidency has officially communicated displeasure with the 2024 budget padding accusations making news rounds – leveled upon it by the chairman of Northern Senators Forum, Senator Abdul Ningi on Saturday, 9 March—who claimed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu padded the 2024 Appropriation Act. In a statement, titled, “The Facts About 2024 Budget,” by special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency stressed that at no time did the Tinubu administration operate two versions of the 2024 budget. Rather, the statement disclosed, it was the National Assembly in its wisdom that increased the proposed N27.5 trillion budget by N1.2 trillion to N28.7 trillion, which the President assented to. Expressing concern that a sitting senator could raise unsubstantiated claims to fuel divisive rhetoric, the Presidency reiterated that the government at the center had never been anti-North but rather equitable to all parts of the country. It further explained that President Tinubu, as an avowed Democrat, would never indulge in unconstitutional acts, like budget padding.