Former Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume yesterday asked the leadership of the Senate to open up its budget.
Ndume, who was removed as leader of the Senate on January 10, spoke while making his contributions on the general principles of the 2017 budget.
The Borno South lawmaker underscored the need for openness and transparency in the management of budgets.
He noted that a situation where details of the Senate budget are not disclosed to senators should no longer be accommodated.
Ndume said: “We come here to pass the budget without seeing the details. This is government of change and this must change. The details of the budget report should and as required, must be considered holistically.
“Last year, we had several issues with the budget. In fact, to some extent, very embarrassing and that is because some of us are even innocent. We don’t know what was in the budget because the details of the budget were not provided and this should be done this year.
“The budget of the Senate is not known to the senators; it should be known this year. This is very important because we cannot be taking blames or hold credit for what we don’t know. Mr. President if you look at 2016 budget, yes we have been given the budget performance, but what budget 2016 contained in relation to 2017 budget is not available.
“There should have been a column where 2016 budget is enumerated and detailed out so that we know because we end up having uncompleted projects.
“We end up having projects that are new that will never be executed because we provide them desperately in other to answer the call of our colleagues, yet they will not be done or for technical reasons they will say they will not do it.
“But if the budget of 2016 column is there and we know what has been released for that particular subheads, then we know what is budgeted for this year or proposed, then we know how to do actual budget work. The Committee on Appropriation should do that and know the right thing.”
Ndume had protested he was not recognised to contribute to the debate even when he wrote his name after Senator Dino Melaye’s.
Through a Point of Order, Ndume said: “When you (Saraki) announced the debate on the budget, you asked us to write our names and I wrote my name and my name is listed after Distinguished Senator Dino Melaye. I was prepared and I was following, but I didn’t hear you call my name after Dino spoke. So, I don’t know when I will contribute.”
Saraki reminded him that though he did not write the list, he was following the list before him religiously.
“Senator Ndume, as I sit down here, I didn’t write this list. I take the order in directing the affairs of the chamber. And the list I have is the list I am going by and I don’t know which list you are talking about.
“So, follow my list and you will be called in due time. So, I don’t know the list you are talking about. The only list that matters is the list I have in front of me and I am going with that list.”
When Ndume was eventually called by Saraki to contribute, he was not in the chamber.
Few minutes later, Ndume emerged. He told his colleagues he went to pray.
Senator Albert Bassey Akpan decried the borrowing plan of the Federal Government.
Akpan noted that the deficit in the budget is the same as the amount budgeted for capital projects.
Senator Gbenga Ashafa, in his contribution, urged the Senate to examine the performance of the 2016 budget before passing the 2017 budget.
The Lagos State lawmaker said Nigerians should be told how much had been recovered from looters.
Senator Shehu Sani asked the Senate to scale down the defence budget.
The Kaduna Central lawmaker noted that since the insurgency has been significantly reduced, there was need to divert defence funds to other sectors of the economy.
Sani said: “We have been told that the insurgency has been reduced. We need therefore to see a scaled-down on defence budget. Money for that area should be channeled to other areas of the economy.”
Senator Aliyu Wammako said the budget failed to address diversification of the economy.
Chairman of Senate committee on Finance Senator John Owan Enoh asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the peace efforts in the Niger Delta region, if enough fund was to be generated from oil to fund the budget.
Senator Solomon Adeola(Lagos West) complained about the non-disclosure of excess money realised from the sale of crude oil.
Adeola noted that since the 2016 budget was predicated on an oil benchmark of $38, the Federal Government needed to tell Nigerians how much it realised from the excess money from the sale of crude oil.