SUDDENLY Senator Abdul Ahmed Ningi has become the unlikely anti-corruption hero in a drama that was as likely as not entirely of his own making. He has become the toast of civil society as well as human rights groups. Political activists and other regional-cum-ethnic champions are also celebrating and holding him up as a symbol of moral rectitude following what must come across to them as his forthright and uncompromising fall-out with his colleagues at the Senate.

At issue is his allegation that there are two budgets, or more appropriately stated, Appropriation Bills for 2024 that are in existence in Nigeria. Even though the senator has been splitting hairs about what he meant by his statement, namely, whether there are in fact two appropriation documents or whether President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appended his signature to only one of the two. The implication of his statement comes down to the fact that there are two documents in existence whether endorsed or not by the president.  

According to Ningi, one of the two documents was signed and presented to the National Assembly by the President while the President is actually implementing another that had been doctored by Senators of the National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio. In plain language, therefore, Senator Ningi, now on suspension for three months, alleged that the Bill presented by the president was ‘’padded’’ by the Senator Akpabio-led Senate. The original Bill presented by the President came to a tidy sum of N25 trillion but the one allegedly being implemented by Abuja after the doctoring by the Senate is in excess of N28 trillion. In precise terms, the budget being implemented is N28.7 trillion, that is N3.7 trillion more than what President Tinubu originally presented to the National Assembly. 

Let’s not forget that it was this same Bill that Yusuf Galambi, a member of the House of Representatives from Gwaram Federal Constituency in Jigawa State controversially said Tinubu presented to them in an empty box last December.  Which is another way of saying that the 2024 Budget, now the subject of acrimony that has pitched one ranking senator against his colleagues, has been dogged by one controversy or another from the beginning, all seemingly manufactured. It’s as if some legislators are determined to create controversy around it even if the bait thrown by Galambi was not taken then by Nigerians. 

Senator Ningi may have achieved his aim of stirring controversy and posturing as an anti-corruption crusader. But he will need to do more than merely make an allegation to pass as one. Nor would he be the first person to do that. He definitely won’t be the last either. And if the history of Ningi’s predecessors in this apparent act of valiant confrontation of sleaze at the National Assembly is anything to go by, his might be no more than a sour grape response to a permissive culture of corruption he was a part of until he was sidelined as his present conduct would suggest. Which is to say that, there has been no serious anti-corruption crusader in the National Assembly- not since 1999. The likes of Dino Melaye and Abdulmumin Aminu have walked and slipped on the treacherous path Senator Ningi is currently navigating.  They failed to measure up and have been shown up for who they are. 

The responses that Ningi, the latter day ‘’whistle blower’’ have received, give the impression that the leadership of the National Assembly has something to hide as was the case when Melaye and Abdulmumin threw their tantrum. Both were suspended and the hush-hush, knee-jerk response of the Akpabio-led Senate to Ningi’s can of worms tells one that they too have a lot to hide. There is everything to suggest that like in the past, the 10th National Assembly helped itself to the till by adding to the expenditure bill proposed by the President in order to take care of themselves and their so-called constituents for whom they claim they must provide ‘’constituency projects’’.

Somehow our legislators have taken upon themselves the duties of the executive arm as they make financial provisions for themselves to facilitate their execution of their self-imposed constituency projects. Under the guise of providing the dividends of democracy to their people, legislators dabble in duties that take them beyond the realm of their legislative responsibilities. This is the history of how appropriation bills have been processed, endorsed and bastardised by the National Assembly since the return to civil rule in 1999 and even earlier.  

Since there are no legitimate means of appropriation to take care of the so-called constituency projects, our legislators tamper with proposals from the executive arm and hide their additions under dubious headings. This is what has apparently played-out again and because the sharing of this “Loot”, the quantity and quality of what goes to each lawmaker, is determined by their closeness to the powers-that-be in the executive arm but especially amongst the legislators themselves, Senator Ningi probably felt short-changed and decided to speak up. The blurring of executive and legislative responsibilities explains the mutual back-slapping that usually accompanies the presentations of members of the executive arm before the legislators. This is what gave birth to the rubber-stamp assemblies.  

Under this arrangement legislators give a smooth ride to executive proposals, become critically obtuse and unquestioning of these bills while waiting to be compensated by the same members of the executive. The executive arm personnel on their part turn a blind eye to the criminal tampering that happens under the guise of debating the annual appropriation bill called Budget. The executive is complicit in acts of legislative malfeasance such as the deliberate extension of executive proposals and bloating of the Appropriation Bill.  Senator Ningi knows he is not a hero and in trying to silence him the leadership of the National Assembly and indeed the legislative body as a whole know they are all complicit in this criminal entreprise.  

In order to continue to enjoy a cosy relationship with the legislature, the Bola Tinubu Presidency may have chosen to see no evil in what Senator Akpabio and his cohorts have done. It has, therefore, said no evil. Which is in line with the general lack of transparency in the manner both the Presidency and the National Assembly have responded to Ningi. Senator Ningi himself will do no more than lick his wound in silence as he knows that he is only railing against what he had been a part of in the past. His hands are no less soiled than the hands of those he seems to be trying desperately to “strip naked”, to quote Senator Adams Oshiomole. Neither the Presidency, the Senate nor Senator Ningi will do what is required: invite independent investigators.