…urges naming, shaming, prosecution of perpetrators
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as terrorism any proven case of unconstitutional and illegal act by the National Assembly hierarchy of padding up the budget with unapproved allocation.
This is just as the rights group has called for a thorough investigation of the current allegations by Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi Central, that the 2024 budget was padded with N3 trillion in the National Assembly.
HURIWA said that from benefits of hindsight, the criminal act of hiding unbudgeted items into the lawfully passed budget has generated a lot of economic haemorrhage and devastating economic paralysis all across Nigeria which inevitably leads to the collapse of major socio-economic infrastructures.
“Therefore, we are of the considered position that the crime of padding up the budget by the National Assembly’s hierarchy is not different from political terrorism,” HURIWA said in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.
“Our worry however with this alarm by the Senator from Bauchi State is that he sounded as if he is out for a regional political warfare for his ethno-geographical area of Northern Nigeria and not from the point of view of a nationalist. This is why the allegations must be thoroughly investigated to ascertain the merits and veracity and then steps taken to identify the individuals responsible so they are brought to the court of competent jurisdiction to be prosecuted as terrorists,” it said.
HURIWA recalled that Senator Ningi, leader of Northern Senators Forum, who spoke in an interview with BBC Hausa, said the northern senators have engaged with some experts to review the budget even as he stated that “huge damage” has been done to the north and the entire country in the budget.
The rights group asked the northern senators to eschew regional sentiments and confront the allegations of padding of the budget from a nationalistic viewpoint because in the thinking of the group, budget padding is as bad as terrorism because it amounts to systemic heists of the resources of the public that ought to be channeled into building key infrastructures and social amenities to ameliorate the hard times confronting a majority of Nigerians.
It condemned any proven case of budget padding and demanded that there is the need to name, shame and prosecute all those who are the masterminds of “this mindless and heartless act of political terrorism and brigandage called budget padding”, adding that such persons should be prosecuted as economic saboteurs and sanctioned harshly.
