Senate leader Ali Ndume says 2016 budget padding is a media hype

The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has described the ongoing controversy between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and former Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, regarding padding of the 2016 budget as “media hype.”

Speaking with State House Correspondents on Friday after Jumat prayer with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Ndume said there was no such thing as padding, stressing that what lawmakers did was to “add, subtract and adjust” in line with their constitutional role.

Recall that Jibrin had last week accused Dogara alongside three other principal officers of the House of attempting to pad N40bn into the 2016 budget.

The Senate Leader maintained that the controversy at the Green Chambers was a result of the fallout between the Speaker and Jibrin.

Ndume asserted that the Constitution empowers lawmakers to tamper with budget, which, he said, is why the President submitted the document to the National Assembly in the first place.

According to him, “The issue of budget padding is more of a media hype than reality. We are not doing budget now, we only have Appropriation Act which is a law and you know the process of implementing a law.

“I do not know where the issue of this budget padding we are talking about is coming from. If we are not to tinker with the budget as submitted by the President, then there would not have been the need to submit it to the National Assembly.

“We have the constitutional duty to add, subtract and adjust. That was what was done. This is the first time we did a budget that was collectively produced in the sense that it was done in such a way that the Senate, House of Representatives and the Executive played different parts.

“This time, the President took his time to ensure that he did not only sign on the budget, but also signed on budget details that he is satisfied with.

“What is happening now is a fallout between individuals, it is more of personal thing between Dogara and Jibrin.

“That is not the way differences should be settled. We have an in-house process that is followed if we have such issues.”