In 2016, Muhammadu Buhari as president of Nigeria, vowed that all persons involved in the padding of that year’s national budget would face severe punishment.
Buhari described the alterations to the budget as
embarrassing and disappointing, saying the document debated in the national
assembly was completely different from what was prepared by the ministry of
budget and national planning.
BACKGROUND
The budget controversy began in December 2015 after
lawmakers alleged that the document Buhari presented on December 22 had been
substituted.
In a letter dated January 19, Buhari told lawmakers that the
original document was riddled with errors.
Garba Shehu, then presidential spokesman, said on February
11, 2016, that the government first detected the errors and that Buhari wrote
to the national assembly to correct them while welcoming further scrutiny.
On February 15, 2015, Buhari sacked Yahaya Gusau as
director-general of the budget office and appointed Tijjani Abdullahi, a former
banker, as his replacement.
‘CULPRITS WILL NOT GO UNPUNISHED’
Addressing the Nigerian community in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
the president condemned what he described as the distortion of the budget
proposals by entrenched interests.
Buhari said throughout his years in public office, he had
never encountered budget padding until the 2016 incident.
He said the unauthorised alterations had fundamentally
changed the budget from the version he presented to parliament.
Buhari, however, absolved Udo Udoma, former minister of
budget and national planning, saying he performed his duties diligently.
“The culprits will not go unpunished,” Buhari said.
“I have been a military governor, petroleum minister,
military head of state and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund.
“Never had I heard the words budget padding. Our minister of
budget and national planning did a great job with his team.
“The minister became almost half his size during the time,
working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it.
“What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It
is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to
go unpunished.”
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