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Tag: Padding

Jibrin links Omisore to House budget padding controversy

Embattled former House of Representatives Appropriation Committee Chairman Abdulmumin Jibrin has linked Senator Iyiola Omisore with the budget padding controversy.

Omisore, who represented Osun East, was the chairman of the seventh Senate’s Appropriation Committee.

In a letter to All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun in which he urged him to advise House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara to resign, Jibrin alleged an unholy alliance between Dogara and Omisore.

In the letter, dated August 12, Jibrin said Dogara’s exit would enable the House “nominate a Speaker Pro Tempore and mobilise our members to support him to take over and adjourn the House until when we are due for resumption in September”.

“This will give room for consultations on the election of a new Speaker when we resume,” he said.

He urged the party “to discuss on the possibility of returning the N100 billion constituency component of the budget under any of our laws so that all stolen money can be returned, particularly the N40 billion naira and equitably distributed to all constituencies.”

The office of the speaker declined to react to Jibrin’s letter yesterday.

On Omisore’s role, he said: “His godfather is Senator Iyiola Omisore. During the build up to the appointment of committee chairmen, I had a terrible disagreement with him (Dogara). While in London, before the appointment of committee chairmen, Jibrin claimed that Dogara “pleaded with me to join him at a house in London. I went and I saw him seated very comfortably with Senator Omisore. It was there he said he was going to appoint me as chairman, Appropriations and I should be reporting to Omisore

“I was completely shocked. A nice lunch was served; we ate and we left. At least, there are CCTVs in London. I confided in a highly-placed person who I wouldn’t want to mention his name. He advised me to remain calm and concentrate on my job. My refusal to comply with such questionable instructions largely accounted for the anger of Mr. Speaker towards me.

“It was much later that I realised that Senator Omisore had adopted Speaker Dogara as a godson since their days as Chairman Appropriations and House Services in the sixth Assembly respectively.”

Jibrin also accused Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal of not supporting his appointment as Appropriations Committee chairman.

Jibrin said Dogara was “more interested in telling me about the forces who didn’t want me to be appointed chairman, appropriations as if I cared. He mentioned former Speaker and present Governor of Sokoto State Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as one. That is how narrow-minded Dogara can be.”

August 15, 2016
The criminality of budget padding
Last week, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker of the House of Representatives arrogantly maintained that he would not subject himself to the investigation being conducted by both the Nigeria Police Force and the Economic and Financial Commission. As far as he is concerned, he enjoys immunity under the provisions of the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act. The embattled Speaker also claimed that the padding of the 2016 is not a criminal offence. Honourable Dogara’s confidence is likely to have been anchored on the statement credited to the Presidency that the budget was not padded in any material particular.

Before then, the All Progressive Congress had decided to follow the discredited path of the Peoples Democratic Party by treating the serious allegation of monumental corruption as a “family affair’’ of the ruling party. But unlike the PDP, the party failed to act timeously. In other words, a cover up is no longer possible at this stage as the cat has been let out of the bag. For now, Honourable Dogara has no choice but to defend the criminal allegations. Contrary to his misleading contention, the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act has not conferred immunity on him with respect to allegations of criminal offences. Since the immunity conferred by the Act is limited to contributions to debates by members of the National Assembly the Speaker cannot ward off the invitation of the Police and the EFCC to react to the criminal allegations levelled against him by Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin.

The Speaker ensured that Honourable Jibrin was removed as the chairman of the Appropriation Committee of the House when it was confirmed by the House that he had allocated projects worth N4 billion to his constituency. The House kicked against Jibrin on the ground that the remaining 359 members have been left to share the remaining N36 billion out of N40 billion. While not denying the allegation, Honourable Jibrin disclosed that the Speaker and some principal officers had unilaterally inserted 2,000 items, otherwise called constituency budgets in the budget. He also accused the Speaker of corrupt enrichment through the acquisition of farms and other properties. Although the Speaker has failed to deny the serious allegations, he has threatened to sue Honourable Jibrin for defaming him.

It would be recalled that the initial budget was withdrawn by President Buhari when the National Assembly members accused some top civil servants of padding the 2016 budget. It was so scandalous that the federal government undertook to sanction the public officers who had altered the budget. At that juncture, the President promptly removed the illegal insertions and resent the corrected budget to both chambers of the parliament. Thereafter, the budget was debated and passed and sent to the President for his assent. It was signed into law by President Buhari when he believed that it had been properly passed by the members of the National Assembly.

But it has now emerged that about 20 legislators in both chambers of the National Assembly altered the budget by inserting constituency projects worth N100 billion in the Appropriation Bill. Both the Senate and the House allocated to themselves N60 billion and N4o billion respectively. If it is established that the alterations were effected after the passing of the budget by both houses, the issue at hand goes beyond padding. A clear case of conspiracy, fraud, forgery and corruption can be established against the suspects.

Padding takes place when legislators resolve to rewrite the budget by introducing new items outside the estimates prepared and presented to them by the President. The controversy over the padding of budget was laid to rest with the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 which has imposed a duty on the finance minister to source input from certain institutions including the National Assembly during the course of preparing the budget. That is when negotiations and horse trading with the executive by the legislators is allowed. But neither the Constitution nor the Fiscal Responsibility Act has empowered the National Assembly members to rewrite the national budget by including constituency projects whose costs are arbitrarily fixed by the legislators.

Under section 81 of the Constitution, the President is given the exclusive power to cause the budget to be prepared. Upon the preparation of the budget by the executive, it shall be laid or presented to the National Assembly by the President. In debating the Appropriation Bill, the legislators may reduce the estimates if there are errors or inflation of the cost of items or if certain items provided for has been purchased before or for any other genuine reasons. But the National Assembly cannot increase the budget in any manner whatsoever. So the unilateral introduction of constituency projects is totally illegal and unconstitutional.

By introducing new items, the National Assembly has usurped the powers of the President to prepare the budget. In other words, the legislators would have prepared the budget and laid it before themselves and then passed it. That is a negation of the doctrine of separation of powers. The appropriation bill or amended appropriation bill is not like other bills. Whereas other bills shall emanate from either of the two houses, money bills shall emanate from the President. So a money bill is a special bill which cannot be subjected to additions by the National Assembly because it has no power to prepare it.

Padding is an unconstitutional infraction when the estimates are increased on the floor of the House. The infraction becomes criminal when the Appropriation Bill is altered by a few legislators after it had been passed by both houses of the National Assembly. In the instant case, Honourable Jibrin is alleged to have altered the budget by inserting projects worth N4 billion while a handful of other legislators led by the Speaker are alleged to have included 2,000 items in the budget. Since the President was then misled to sign it as the Appropriation Bill properly passed by both houses, the principal officers of the National Assembly cannot turn round to seek protection under the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act.

It is unfortunate that Honourable Dogara has never heard of the word “padding” before now. It is not new in our legislative history. While the 2005 Appropriation Bill was under consideration in the Senate, some senators including the Senate President padded the budget of a ministry after allegedly collecting N55 million bribe from a minister. The scandal led to the removal of the Senate President who was later charged with his indicted colleagues and the minister. The Supreme Court has recently ordered that the suspects be tried for corruption having thrown out the preliminary objections filed against the charges by them at the trial court.

If legislators conspire with themselves to pad the budget to fund the purchase of exotic cars and payment of unauthorised jumbo emoluments, it is a criminal offence. The allegations of Honourable Jibrin have gone beyond the padding of the budget. The serious issue which the Speaker and other principal officers have not addressed is that the alterations of the budget took place outside the plenary session of the house. This is the crux of the matter. A former senator was arrested recently and the EFCC stumbled on a document which set out how N60 billion was shared among some legislators. The EFCC should investigate the source of the fund. Where did fund come from? Jibrin’s complaint should provide the country a golden opportunity to get to the root of criminality in the National Assembly.

Regardless of the interference of the ruling party and the denial of the allegation of the padding of the 2016 budget by the Presidency, the Police and the EFCC should proceed with the investigation of the allegations of Honourable Jibrin against the leadership of the House and the counter-allegations of his colleagues against him. Up till now, the N115 billion budget of the National Assembly in the 2016 budget has been shrouded in secrecy. The ongoing investigation should reveal the details of the budget.
- Falana, SAN, writes from Lagos.
August 15, 2016
Politics of padding and evasion

Nobody from the legislative to the executive should be afraid of investigation of the issues raised by Jibrin who acknowledged his own participation in the act of padding

If Nigerians were not the optimists they are, their country would have been raped to death by the venal and brazen men and a few women that find their way to political office in all forms and at all levels. When citizens are not being entertained by news of bureaucratic corruption, they are being embarrassed by reports of the tricks of budget making. If they are not being confused by the inordinate adjournment of cases of corruption involving top politicians and bureaucrats, they are being confounded by reports of display of omniscience by their leading lawmakers, to the extent that words imbued with value are emptied of the wholesomeness the word signifies.

Although there are many “top lawyers’ in the National Assembly according to the Speaker, fortunately, there are other professionals: doctors, engineers, accountants, academics, all of whose disciplines do not allow them to see human actions as value-free, the way Speaker Dogara spoke of law in relation to allegation of padding after his recent visit to President Buhari. There may be a clear line between legality and morality, in most democracies in the Anglophone world in which there are more lawyers in their legislatures than we have in Nigeria, politicians are still expected to act in a way that shows that they have value for morality in public affairs.

Still in the Anglophone world to which Nigeria was drafted by colonialism, to pad is a value-laden word. In communication in particular, padding means to add unwholesome, undesirable, superfluous, misleading matter to a material. Even the Webster dictionary has not outgrown the definition that to pad is a word that kicks against indiscipline: “to expand or increase with needless, misleading, or fraudulent matter.” So, padding of budget is not the opposite of what a backbencher in the Commons once warned fellow British MPs against, “rubber stamping tablets of stone handed down by the executive of the day.” It is legitimate for legislators to engage in pork barrel politics, as it is done in many other democracies. But in doing so, lawmakers are supposed to engage in lobbying fellow legislators and the executive to site projects in their constituencies, not for personal interest but for community growth and verifiable public good. Pork barrel politics does not include arranging for special constituency allowance to be managed by lawmakers; nor does it allow lawmakers engaged in scrutinising budget to insert their own pork barrel projects directly in the budget. This has to be settled with the executive before the budget is presented to the legislature before all representatives of the people.

Padding may not be illegal in Nigerian jurisprudence, but it is offensive all the same. A lawyer friend of mine told me that if a budget document sent by the president to the national assembly for approval benefited from added materials in the open during plenary session of the house and the added material got approved by the whole house after such open debate, such may not be a crime. However, any padding that takes place in camera or when many lawmakers are not within earshot, is not just unwholesome but patently criminal. The criminality of such addition is larger than uttering and forgery, it may also be treasonable, as it misrepresents the will of parliament, by presenting materials unknown to parliament as originating from parliament.

However, it is too soon for anybody to talk about criminality in respect of allegations of padding until a thorough investigation is conducted to determine the sequence of events from President Buhari’s submission of the 2015 budget to the National Assembly to the point that the approved copy of the parliament was sent to the Clerk of the House and the final copy delivered to the president as approved copy from the House. The two documents that require rigorous scrutiny are the copy of the document sent to the clerk immediately after the approval and the copy of the budget that finally got to the president. It may not be just the lawmakers that Jibrin had described as agents of padding along with himself that need to be investigated, the bureaucracy of the house should be investigated, just as it was in the case of forgery of the Rules of the Senate. But attempts by top members of the ruling party to settle the matter as internal affairs of the party are not helpful in promoting politics of change. Nobody from the legislative to the executive should be afraid of investigation of the issues raised by Jibrin who acknowledged his own participation in the act of padding. Probing the allegations do not amount to attempts by the executive to intimidate the legislature; it may very well turn out to strengthen the legislature, once the facts of Jibrin’s allegations are laid bare for all to see.

After thorough investigation by the police, EFCC, or ICPC, the allegations much touted by Jibrin may become just serve as an exercise of purification for all concerned, especially if nothing criminal is not established. The Yoruba saying: enitikoba se nnkanitofikiiboju wo ehinkule, (those who have not done anything that sparks suspicion need not look beyond their shoulders) is apt to assure those resisting investigation to remain calm, if they have nothing to feel uncomfortable about. What threatens to offend moral sensibility of citizens is the sudden polarization of the House into pro and anti-Dogara groups, especially claims by hundreds of legislators that Jibrin’s allegations are politically motivated. This kind of herd instinct by House members sounds similar to the response of senators to charges of perjury and forgery against the Senate President when senators gladly shut down the senate in order to accompany their president to court and the stridency of claims by senators loyal to Saraki and Ekweremadu that any allegation against the two is tantamount to an indictment of the senate as an institution. These are matters that should be of urgent concern to the new engineers of state from status quo to change.

Sensitive and sensible citizens ought to get worried about the legislative culture of the country even in the post-Jonathan presidency that had been perceived as the epicenter of venality in governance. It is unfortunate that every time since beginning of this administration the fighters of corruption act right, something happens in the legislature to suggest that its principal members prefer to gravitate to the left on the moral spectrum. This development should worry patriotic or change-loving citizens. Worse still, public discourse is being reduced by the day to 9th grade level, especially by legislators who are eager to spin the narrative of executive persecution of the second branch of government anytime the former moves to invoke the principle of ethics and public morality, particularly in respect of members of the National Assembly.

The Speaker has already announced that no institution has a right to probe the House because it has not done anything beyond its power to tinker with the budget: tinkering with the budget. In the last one year, citizens have been psychologically assaulted by incessant news of individual and institutional corruption, particularly during the preceding administration. Now that Jibrin has alerted the nation about acts of budget padding under the new administration and persons Jibrin has accused of padding have said unequivocally that there was no such thing, investigating the claims of accuser and accused will help reduce citizens’ anxiety, even if all the probe can achieve is to establish the innocence of those fingered in Jibrin’s claims. Doing this will go a long way to remove the perception (or misperception?) outside the houses of power—legislative and executive—that the country’s political leaders see governing Nigeria essentially as an enterprise to profit from, rather than as a service to perform in the interest of public good.

August 14, 2016
This paddy called padding

ur representatives must have been natives or inhabitants of Ireland because these are the people known as paddy. Paddy also has to do with rice. But, in Nigeria, when you say someone is your paddy, it is generally understood to mean a friend or an ally; someone in whom one has infinite confidence; probably a confidant. That is why I am surprised that people are castigating Dogara for saying padding is not an offence. Since when has anything reprehensible been an offence in Nigeria’s high places? Those talking about morals must have forgotten that it is the Dogara-led House of Representatives that is looking for immunity for the principal leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even in the eras when we really thought this country had totally lost its moral compass, not a whiff of such was seen or heard from those chambers. The way things are, one is now being forced to swallow one’s reference to the David Mark’s years as senate president as corrupt and inept. Something much more putrid is probably in the offing from Dogara’s House of Representatives. So, when Dogara is looking for immunity for the principal officers of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, we thought he did not know what he was doing. As I often say in such situations, it is only a man who knows what spittle is used for that spits on the ground and quickly rubs it with his foot.

What Dogara is saying is that the padding, as it stands, is not yet an offence; perhaps when it becomes ‘fantastic padding’ we may begin to activate the process of taking action against the speaker and his clique. For now, we should be satisfied with the speaker’s analysis. Padding is not an offence; it is only a paddy. And a paddy in need is a paddy indeed!

August 14, 2016
And padding receives silent ovation

If there is any institution that urgently needs a soft loan from the shame vault, it is the nation’s House of Representatives. Agreed that shamelessness defines our leadership and political landscape, it would not be out of place to establish a vault where these characters can at least, buy some ‘mudus’ of shame to give a semblance of sanity to our governance architecture. We cannot continue to live a lie and expect dignified treatment from advanced democracies. When otherwise honourable leaders turn the serious act of governance into some form of rude joke, they should be ready for the unsavoury backlash. It is a pity that an important arm of government like the legislature has continued to put the wrong foot forward in our nightmarish democratic experience. Where one had expected it to get serious in the business of enacting laws that would guarantee good governance, the legislature props itself up as a perennial fountain of ridicule, almost only good at truncating the fine ideals of representative government. It is the reason why, after 17 years of this journey, the Nigerian legislature has lost its footing in a shadow-chasing rat race that imperils development.

For a House of Representatives that can hardly boast of passing a single legislation that has a direct impact on the fortunes of the hapless citizens it claims to represent, it is a tragic twist of fate that members are once again in the news for the wrong reason. Well, they’ve always done that since 1999. This time, it is over an alleged padding of the 2016 budget by the leadership of the House with the active connivance of the singing canary and self-styled activist and latter-day whistle-blower, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin. But for his expose, many had concluded that the 2016 Appropriation Bill that was eventually signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari was a near-perfect document. That belief was strengthened by Buhari’s insistence on the need for the National Assembly to effect changes and deal with smuggled items as noticed by the President’s men. With Jibrin’s insistence that there was more to the budget than meets the eye, one wonders if The Presidency had actually done a thorough job before extracting a presidential assent under the table. By the way, how does one begin to interrogate a budget that remains a subject of fraudulent controversy in the eighth month of the year? Needless to say that this epilepsy in policy direction is the root of our developmental woes. Unfortunately, many had thought the Buhari administration was poised to do things differently, in the true spirit of genuine change. With the latest revelations, it is obvious that this fresh wine is hemmed up in the deceit of the past. Nothing has really changed.

In the last three weeks, the Nigerian media have been awash with news of the budget padding or what some other people prefer to call insertion or mutilation depending on whose pipers’ tune one is dancing to. Though Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his close allies accused of expanding the budget with items running into billions of naira in their constituencies without approval have rubbished the allegations as unfounded, Jibrin insists that the budget was abused and that he has facts and figures on the matter. Enraged by his unceremonious removal as Chairman of the House’ Appropriation Committee by Dogara, Jibrin vowed to expose what he called a mendacious rape of our national patrimony by a bunch of privileged lawmakers in the hallowed chambers. I guess Jibrin knows he is part of that group of leeches.

In all, thirteen lawmakers, including some principal officers have been fingered in the deal. They include Dogara, his Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuff, the Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa and the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor. The padding, we are told, is worth over N250bn in hidden cost with all manner of earth shaking details about how these privileged persons influenced projects to their constituencies in a House where members are expected to relate as equals. The intriguing thing is that those fingered by Jibrin are also fighting back in equal measure, exposing how the Kano State-born politician cornered mouth-watering contracts with humongous sums to his local government area. It has been three weeks of shocking revelations, threats and counter threats with the ruling All Progressives Congress issuing a laughable, if not annoying, gag order on Jibrin. Whoever advised the party to gag Jibrin or any other person linked to this legislative rascality is definitely an enemy of the state. If the APC truly desires to change the systemic rot of the locust years, it has no business asking the singing birds to keep mum. In these trying times, with an economy that has sunk its teeth deep in our skins; the citizens deserve to know those who have been ripping them off.

Described as a sinking man holding on to greasy straws and looking for who to pull down with him, Jibrin is also a smoking gun whose allegations should not be taken with the kind of levity Dogara appeared to be treating the matter by dismissing the alleged padding as unfounded in our law books. It is one thing to hide behind legalese to explain one’s innocence and it is another thing to feign ignorance of the sacrilege that goes on in the name of budget processes in the country. It is an open secret that lawmakers, over the years, have exploited the window provided for them to appropriate funds for the use of the executive to perpetuate crass larceny. This is not just about the official graft and raw stealing in the guise of oversight functions and constituency projects. It is more about illegal injections, insertions and padding of the budgets with hidden projects in appropriating funds for ministries, departments and agencies. That the scam has lasted this long does not in any way mean that it is not a grievous crime against the state. As a matter of fact, the perfidy persisted because of the unwritten symbiotic relationship between two corrupt arms of government. Now that a new government insists on putting an end to the nonsense, many of the people involved in the under-the-table sharing of our collective wealth are living in denial.

As Barrister Dogara pointed out, padding may not be a criminal offence and it is not impossible that those allegedly involved may as well get a clean bill of health among the comity of thieves. What cannot be wished away is the import of Jibrin’s revelations on the integrity of the whole House. If there was ever any doubt about the seriousness of the legislature in enacting laws for the good of all, the fallout of the latest scandal has just confirmed the overwhelming fears that what we have as a law-making body at the centre is a bunch of egocentric jesters with padded shoulders! To them, honour means nothing but a hollow appendage to their names. The only thing that gets their testosterone running wild is when they discuss life pensions for members or immunity for the leadership. And, we ask, immunity against what?

If any of these members has taken the pain to sit down and imagine what the millions they fritter away yearly on tending personal egos can do in the life of the average Nigerian, they would stop the shameless huffing and puffing over a deed that is as criminal as crime can be. In a country where people now steal steaming soup from the neighbour’s stove, to feed their starving children and face the consequences later, what is honourable about a set of shameless hirelings bandying billions that they illegally captured for themselves in the national budget with or without the knowledge of the executive. If we cannot prosecute or make these guys pay for their action, we can, at least, find out if the figures were inflated for selfish reasons. So, we ask: Is it true that less than fifteen members willfully smuggled over 2000 new projects into the budget without the knowledge of other members? Did principal officers, at any time, make efforts to allocate N40 billion to themselves out of the N100 billion appropriated to the National Assembly? Did Jibrin, who now calls himself a human rights crusader, divert projects worth N4 billion to his constituency, including the controversial films village without the knowledge of other members of the appropriation committee? Did he, in the course of avoiding “pressure” from the leadership, rework the budget to his taste with the help of his consultant without the consent of other members? And did he at any time plead with another member to assist in “inserting” a N1 billion health project in his Bebeji/Kiru Federal Constituency?

In addition, how did a N500m health project in the same constituency find its way into the budget without the knowledge of the chairman of the House’ Health Committee? Is it true that, apart from what Jibrin called the Speaker’s ‘fraudulent insertions” of nine roads, water projects and 10 solar boreholes, Dogara’s office collects a whopping N25 million monthly for general services?

All these allegations keep flying and some persons rely on legalese to dismiss them with a wave of the hand! So what moral justification do they have for the self-serving insertions and mutilations since padding is not known to our laws? As things stand today, it is not impossible that this latest scandal, bad as it is, may end up being swept under the carpet regardless of Jibrin’s initial epileptic hysteria. Already, the ruling party has sent out signal that the matter would be handled internally. The Presidency is quoted as saying it is unaware of any padding in the budget. It is moments like this that gives credence to the feelings out there that nothing has changed significantly after the Peoples Democratic Party was kicked out. It is a pity that the APC and its band of noisemakers cannot hold itself to the mirror and wield the big stick to call its rapacious, errant and light-fingered members to order. The eerie silence over this matter, in spite of the naked dance in the marketplace, is to say the least, a remarkable let down. Is this the face of change? Not really. How long can this ludicrous drama last?

End. End. End.

August 13, 2016
Buhari to probe budget padding, constituency projects

•Jibrin alleges plot to assassinate him

The Federal Government reacted yesterday to the budget padding row in the House of Representatives, promising to probe the allegation and other related cases over the years.

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN) said the government would “take action” based on the probe outcome.

This indicates that the probe may be extended to the administrations of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Malami also said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would probe executive and legislative conspiracy on constituency projects.

But former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Abdulmumin Jibrin yesterday lashed out at Speaker Yakubu Dogara for saying that padding is not an offence.

Malami, who spoke with our correspondent, said the government’s action on padding would lead to the blocking of fraudulent leakages.

He said: “We will investigate the executive and legislative conspiracy as it relates to constituency projects with a view to measuring the art of execution of the padded projects over the years

“In so doing, we will learn our lessons in the budget and its implementation as a law with the aim to prosecute infractions and block leakages inherent in the padding process.

“Action must naturally be taken in the interest of the nation for efficient utilisation of our commonwealth and blocking of fraudulent leakages.”

There were also indications yesterday that the government may resist pressure to dump the investigation of Jibrin’s petition against Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor others for the alleged padding.

It was gathered that some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are pushing for a political solution to the matter but a government source said: “We are not aware of any political solution to the ongoing investigation of the padding of the 2016 Budget by the police.

“Some people no doubt are seeking political solution to the padding palaver but I think the government will want the law to take its course.

“The way the Speaker spoke at the Presidential Villa on Friday suggested that a political compromise was in the offing . But President Buhari made no commitment at all.”

The Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Police will today interact with Jibrin.

The lawmaker is expected to present more documents to the panel and begin his interaction with the five-man team.

A source said: “The panel has linked up with Jibrin, we are hopeful of a robust session with him on Monday (today).”

But Jibrin on his Tweeter handle last night said only 13 members of the House are on trial for padding, not all the 360 members.

He said: “It has once again become necessary for me to make some statements, clarifications and further revelations.

“As you are aware, my party(APC) has intervened in the current crisis following allegations of corruption, embezzlement and abuse of office leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, three principal officers and nine other members of which none had responded to any.

“As I said earlier, it is only the 13 members of the House that are on trial, not the House of Representatives as an institution.

“Surprisingly, they have resorted to using every tactics to narrow the allegations to only issue of padding, which in itself is a grievous offence, ignoring tens of other criminal allegations in my petition to the anti-corruption agencies.

“In doing so, they mischievously expanded the scope of the culpability to give an impression that the entire House, the Senate and even the Executive arm of government and some individuals outside the National Assembly are on trial.

“This is a wicked attempt to drag many institutions and individuals into the matter to neutralise the issue, spread fear and sell dummy that the entire country will go down if this matter is dealt with decisively, the biggest blackmail on the entire country I have ever seen.

“Nigerians should know that the whole agenda of this blackmail is being coordinated by two serving governors and three former members. I will give their names in due course. They have been running from pillar to post and I keep wondering what really are they afraid of.

“The meeting with the party went very well and in all honesty, they were very objective and showed understanding.

“I told the party that I will be part of any peaceful resolution except the criminal allegations I have raised against Dogara and 12 others.

“On that, I told the party there is no going back and further informed them that more revelations will be made once investigation commences.”

Alleging that there is a plan to assassinate him, Jibrin said: “I believe Speaker Dogara, the 12 others and some vested interest within and outside the House want to kill me. I no longer feel safe. I have carefully followed their desperation to suppress what will go down in history as the biggest corruption case in Nigeria.

“I have prepared myself for any eventuality. I have spoken to my mum and dad extensively during the weekend. I have prepared my family. I have handed over a handwritten note and documents to a popular Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), a man of integrity and other persons that I believe will lay it bare even if they succeed in killing me.

After three days of careful observation and receiving information from very patriotic Nigerians, I discovered a grand plan by the group of two governors and three former (House) members designed to provide soft-landing for Dogara and 12 others, give them time to clean up the mess on their desk, destroy whatever evidence in their possession and reach, spread money across members to buy signature of vote of confidence.

“So the Speaker is saying the nine roads he inserted into the budget which he fraudulently sandwiched into four roads and inserted billions into that without any design or costing is not an offence? Or the water project he hijacked from the budget and took to his farm is not an offence? Or moving 10 solar boreholes to a place that probably requires just two is not an offence?”

Dogara’s spokesman Hassan Turaki declined comment when contacted last night.

August 8, 2016
‘Speaker backs padding of budget in secret location’

Former House of Representatives Appropriation Committee chairman Abdulmumin Jibrin, has alleged that the padding of the 2016 budget with N40 billion was done at a secret location with the backing of Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three principal officers.

Jibrin, who gave more details on the development in a statement last night, said the allegation of padding was not against the entire members of the House but the four principal officers.

Apart from the Speaker, he listed the other principal officers as Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, House Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor.

All of them have washed their hands off the matter, saying Jubrin is muck raking after putting himself in trouble.

But Jubrin insists the principal officers were involved and that he needed his colleagues to listen to his side of the story and set up a panel to probe the matter.

Jibrin, who said he had to bear the bashing arising from the padding, said 10 Committee chairmen were also involved in injecting N284b into the budget with 2000 fictitious projects.

He said unknown his colleagues, his inability to intimate the entire House about the Budget matter was well planned and executed by Dogara and the others.

He said: “During the budget period, when they discovered that I was not the kind of a person they could use to perpetrate their illegality, Mr. Speaker and the three other principal officers took away the entire Appropriation Committee secretariat to a secret location where all sort of insertions were made into the budget.

“The blackmail has always been, Abdul people will laugh at you if anything goes wrong between you and Dogara because of the lead role you played and the many toes you stepped on to get him elected.

“It’s been a painful experience. Again the secretariat was taken away from me on Speaker Dogara’s instruction for the second time to a location I don’t know and all sort of insertions into the budgets were made and returned to me for signature.

“I said over my dead body! It was a massive crisis behind the scene until the early morning of the Friday that Mr President assented the budget.

“It was Sen Danjuma Goje that brokered a compromise that since the Deputy Speaker leads the Harmonisation Committee, he should also sign such that the Harmonisation Committee will share responsibility with us.

“Senator Goje pleaded with me so hard all night and later shouted heavily on me, reminding me that he is not talking to me as a Senator but as a father. I cried heavily all night.

“When the budget Harmonisation Committee headed by Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun gave out 80 per cent concession across board to the executive demands during the harmonisation negotiation, it was agreed that the remaining 20 per cent should go to the entire NASS.

“The Deputy Speaker excused himself that he wanted to go and consult with Mr. Speaker. He came back after few hours and in an unprecedented display of greed, presented to me a hand written note distributing the remaining 20 per cent to only principal officers.

“70 per cent of the 20 per cent was reserved for Mr. Speaker and himself while the remaining 30 per cent of the 20 per cent goes to other principal officers.

“I am sure he will recognise the handwriting when he sees it. My colleagues didn’t know all of these.

“Mr Speaker also directed me to create what I advised him will be a controversial line item under Service Wide Vote to introduce about N20 billion project using the name of NASS.

“He directed me to see a highly-placed PDP politician, which I did and collected the documents. I advised him repeatedly against it but he kept pressuring me until I bluntly told him I will not!

“When the Appropriation Committee received all the budget reports from standing committees, an analysis was conducted. We discovered that about 10 only out of the 96 Standing Committees of the House introduced about 2,000 (two thousand) projects without the knowledge of their committee members amounting to about N284, 000, 000, 000 ( Two hundred and eighty four billion).

“I was alarmed. But I was cautious because at our pre-budget meeting with the committee chairmen, I was clearly warned not to touch their budgets. I reported the matter to the speaker. He did nothing about it obviously because he was working behind the scene with the committee chairmen.

“That was the beginning of the whole budget problem from the side of House and the whole exercise had to go through several versions before it was passed.

“So, is it Abdul that introduced 2000 projects into budget worth N284billion? But I quietly bore the pain and abuses from all over the country and continued to defend the committee’s inputs as a show of loyalty to the institution I represent which I so much love and still have many great minds in there.

“Apart from Chairman Agriculture Hon Mongunu who owned up and explained his inputs at the only executive session I was allowed to attend, the other chairmen who loaded the budget kept quiet and watched me bashed from every angle by angry Nigerians.”

Jibrin also defended himself when accused of keeping silence on the matter before things went sour among the principal actors, saying: “Many members of the House and Nigerians will be shocked to know that there has never been good times between myself and Speaker Dogara.

“It took few weeks after his election as Speaker for me to realise I never really knew him well. I was hasty to judge him by his innocent looking personality.

“When you see a house you sacrificed everything to build is falling apart and the driver believes he is firmly in charge because he has eight votes advantage, you are left with no choice than to tie your seat belt for obvious eventuality. I must admit I made an error of judgement.

“I don’t know to whom and from where I will start apologising for not heeding to wise counsel. There is nothing I am saying now that I have not discussed or warned Speaker Dogara on the few occasions that I sought and got private audience with him.

July 25, 2016
SERAP seeks probe of alleged N40b budget padding

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for an independent probe into the alleged N40 billion 2016 budget padding by the National Assembly.

SERAP’s Executive Director Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni yesterday, in a statement, urged Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara to allow the anti-graft agencies probe allegations of budget padding by its leadership.

He advised the Speaker to allow the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the allegation.

The executive director said the leadership of the House was alleged to have padded the 2016 budget by N40 billion.

“SERAP’s call follows allegations by the last Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmunin Jibrin, that the Speaker and three other principal officers attempted to approve N40 billion of N100 billion approved for constituency projects.

“Jibrin said he has also been victimised for refusing to support immunity for officers.

“Given the seriousness and gravity of the allegations against the House leadership, any investigation by the House would not be enough to meet the threshold of an effective, transparent and independent investigation.

“Nigerians will not have confidence in the House investigating itself.

“The Speaker must move swiftly to refer the allegations to EFCC and ICPC to allow for a swift, transparent, effective and independent investigation to contain the damage.

“There must be full accountability for any leader or member found to be responsible.

“These allegations raise questions about the need for a greater level of transparency and accountability in the National Assembly, such as telling Nigerians salaries and allowances of senators and members of the House.

“Public auditing of spending by the National Assembly and several reports on allegations of corruption that have been investigated by the National Assembly remain shrouded in secrecy and skewed to favour suspected corrupt officers,” Mumuni said.

Besides, he enjoined the House leadership to publicly commit that it would not promote constitutional amendments on immunity for its principal officers.

According to him, no public interest would be served if it sought to grant its principal officers immunity not contemplated by framers of the 1999 Constitution.

“It is important the National Assembly conducts itself in the knowledge that its role is a public one.

“Appearances of propriety can be as important as actual conflicts of interest in establishing what is acceptable behaviour,” he emphasised.

Mumuni urged Dogara to propose a bill on members’ integrity, saying this will restore public confidence in the National Assembly, check corruption and protect the leadership from criticism.

July 25, 2016
Padding and punishment

After a rigmarole that was as ridiculous as it was revealing, the country’s 2016 Budget was eventually formalised with just over six months of the year left. Not surprisingly, there is public anxiety about how far the President Muhammadu Buhari administration can go in implementing a budget that is about six months late.

What really caused the delay? For the avoidance of doubt, Buhari shed light on what happened during the recent Anti-Corruption Summit in London. He told reporters: “Yes, we have six months to implement the budget. You know why there was a delay. There is something called padding. I have been in government since 1975. I was governor of what is now six states: Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, that used to be North East. Then I was in Obasanjo’s cabinet, Petroleum for three and a quarter years. I was Head of State for 20 months. I had never heard about that one, padding, until this year.”

What has padding got to do with budgeting? Buhari continued: “And what does it mean? It means that the technocrats just allowed the government to make its noise, to go and make the presentation to the National Assembly. They will remove it and put in their own. When we uncovered this, we just had to go back to the basics again. Ministers had to go again and appear before the Minister of Budget and National Planning and make presentations again.”

Buhari suggested that he is much wiser now: “This was clearly brought out by the Minister of Health. I saw with my own eyes, nobody told me. I was watching NTA and he appeared before a committee that said the minister should come and defend his budget. He looked at what was presented to him as his budget and he said he had nothing to defend, that that was not what he presented. Subsequently, we discovered that it was not only the Ministry of Health. So they allowed us to talk rubbish as government and they do what they like.”

Who were the people responsible for this padding? An anti-corruption administration should tell the public more, and do more to ensure that the padding professionals do not try to pad the next budget. Those who padded the proposed budget should be punished.

May 18, 2016
The Padding fad

• Watch out! She may not be that voluptuous

The delusion of a larger backside has become increasingly fashionable among women and this has given rise to the use of padded underwears that have literally flooded the markets, writes Adetutu Audu.

In February 2011, an aspiring hip-hop dancer and choreographer, Claudia Aderotimi got hooked on the belief that a ‘bigger butty’ would make her famous and open doors of career opportunities for her. The Nigerian British-born dancer thereafter went for a music video audition. She got all the attention with her big butty alright, but when it was discovered that the butty was fake and that she had been wearing bottom-padded trousers, she was promptly dumped from the cast and left to rue her loss.

In her desperation to beat off competition, she resorted to surgery, thinking that having a shapelier backside would fast-track her drive to become a Hip Hop star. However the Thames Valley University student developed chest pains and struggled for breath 12 hours after she had the illegal silicone injections at a budget hotel. She was taken to a hospital but could not be saved. A preliminary examination found that the silicone filler had leaked into her bloodstream, leading to heart failure.

It was not the first time Aderotimi had had the procedure. She was believed to have been treated in November the previous year and the latest injection might have been a ‘top-up’ procedure.

In October 2005, former Nigeria’s first lady, the late Stella Obasanjo died in an exclusive Spanish hospital after she underwent a liposuction at the Molding Clinic in Marbella. The surgeon involved in the surgery was jailed for one year in 2009 by a Malaga Court in Spain.

Last April, a Lagos-based businessman, Adelani Makinde filed for divorce just hours after his expensive wedding, after discovering that his bride had been wearing what is known as a “butt pad” to augment the size of her rear.

According to the petition filed by the groom at the Ikeja High Court, the couple had come home from their premium wedding reception, eager to consummate their marriage for the first time, meaning that the groom had never seen his wife unclad before.

The groom cited that his wife insisted that he waited in the bedroom, while she changed in the bathroom; but he couldn’t wait to touch her, so he burst into the bathroom, filled with passion, only to catch her holding up the butt pad girdle.

The obviously angry groom, announced to whoever cared to listen that “her yansh was as flat as an ironing board and I prefer a woman whose rear is big.” Makinde promptly filed for divorce, citing false pretense as grounds.

Soji Ibrahim, a 35 year old trader ended his marriage of two months to Rashidat because she had ‘small boobs.’ Ibrahim recalled that “It was her boobs that attracted her to me. I met her when she came to buy pepper from me and I couldn’t take my eyes off her big boobs.”

Ibrahim was however shocked to discover after their wedding that his wife had been using artificial boobs. “Her boobs are as small as Agbalumo (cherry),” he said. “I detest those small size boobs. It is better to end the marriage.” He said, he’s anger still seething

Narrating his own experience, John Okafor said a few months into his marriage, his wife, Nkechi, started wearing butt pads. “I told her to stop, because I didn’t like the stuff, but she flared up and we had an altercation. She told me she had to look good to outsiders. Throughout her pregnancy period, she wore the butt pads on daily basis even at home, I allowed her because of her condition, even though it looked disgusting on her. A few days after she put to bed, I told her to quit wearing the stuff, but she refused; then I seized it. She started ranting to the hearing of everyone in the neighbourhood that I had a taken her padded pants (aka butt pad) to a native doctor. I simply ignored her.

“A few days later, she bought another set. On Christmas day (2014), she dressed up and wore the butt pads again; I told her to remove them but she refused, then I tried forcing her to do so, and that resulted into a serious fight. She tore my already ironed clothes to pieces, I tore hers too and forced the butt pads out from her body.

“Hell was let loose that day because she called her sisters, who came to my house and created a very nasty scene in my neighbourhood. They insulted, ridiculed and made a mockery of me.”

In a recent interview with Encomium Magazine, Ex- Footballer, John Fashanu commenting on his crisis-ridden marriage with society woman, Abigail Igwe, said it was ‘a sham,’ and that they only lived together for three months. He also alleged that she was after his lands in Lagos and Abuja, and that ‘she’s the worst cook in the world, who spends N200,000 on padded pants to make her bum look bigger.’

The marriage, it was said, actually ended around April 2014, but divorce was filed about six months ago. Both have also brought up sexual escapades as one of the major causes of their separation.

Fashanu is not the only one in this category. Of all the stories about Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries’ impending divorce and fake show wedding, the latest that caught their fans’ attention, is that Humphries is threatening to expose his estranged wife (Kim Kardashian’s) butt as a fraud. According to him, Kardashian uses padded panties to make her ass look big.

Although the reality TV sexpot insists her bubble butt is all natural and even displayed an x-ray of what she claimed was her backside on her show as proof.

But some insiders claim the curvy 31-year-old beauty uses butt pads and say Kris filmed a video that proves his estranged wife’s prized posterior is phony.

“Kris told his buddies that it takes a lot of work for Kim to make her bottom look as good as it does,” says a source. “He revealed all her secrets – how she uses ‘butty pads,’ Spanx and other things to enhance it. When she takes off the Spanx, the pads and everything else, it’s not the same.”

Stories of the phony hot bodies abound and cut across races, classes and borders. Just last week, a tailor, Tina, based in Oshodi in Lagos, got linked up with some ‘big babes’ on Lagos Island. To her, it was big business coming, as she normally charge them ‘Island price’ and promptly went to take their measurements. She however got her biggest surprise, when this set of ‘babes’ specifically requested that she ‘pad up the front and back of the dresses well o.’

As good as she is on her job, Tina, a born-again Christian, had never had this request before and had to be calling some of her more outgoing friends and colleagues, to confirm what she had heard.

“So what happens when the guys they’re trying to deceive finally take of their dress?” She asked still amazed, mouth and eyes wide open.

Extreme makeover

In August 2015, an Algerian groom took his bride to court just a day after their marriage, accusing her of not looking as pretty as before the wedding and of cheating him into marriage with too much make-up.

The groom, who is seeking $20,000 as compensation, told a court in the capital, Algiers that he was shocked when he got up the next morning and found that his wife looked so different, that he could not even recognize her.

Newspapers in the North African Arab country said the groom swore in court that he even mistook his wife for a “thief who came to steal in his apartment.”

“He said he was deceived by her as she used to fill up her face with make up before their marriage,” the papers said, quoting a court source.

“The groom told the court that he is demanding $20,000 damages for his psychological suffering.”

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But for Jian Feng, from northern China, this was not the case. Earlier in the year, he divorced and sued his wife for being ugly.

Feng won his case and was awarded a little under £75,000 by the judge, American TV channel, Fox 31 reported. Feng said he took issues with his wife’s looks only after the couple’s daughter was born. He was shocked by the child’s appearance, calling her ‘incredibly ugly’ and saying she looked like neither of her parents.

He was so outraged that he initially accused his wife of cheating on him. Faced with this accusation, his wife admitted to spending around £62,000 on plastic surgery which altered her appearance drastically.

She had the work done before she met her husband and never told him about it after they met. “I married my wife out of love, but as soon as we had our first daughter, we began having marital issues. Our daughter was incredibly ugly, to the point where it horrified me,” Jian Feng told the Irish Times.

Feng filed for divorce saying his wife had deceived him and convinced him to marry her under false pretenses. The judge agreed with him and awarded him the damages of $120,000.

Perhaps for fear its repercussion or for those who are scared of undergoing cosmetic surgery, Nigerian ladies now go for special underpants that have soft fabric and reinforced elastic band that lift, support and make the buttocks increase in a drastic way. Interestingly, the special underpants are so well made that even if you touch the wearer’s buttocks, you would never mistake it for an artificial one.

Selling profusely

The padded underwears have taken over the markets and sellers have been smiling to the banks as they enjoy huge patronage from ladies, who want curvy, fuller hips and butts.

Tope Faronbi, a cosmetologist and CEO Tejuvee Beauty and Cosmetology School, Lagos told Sunday Nation that fashion has gone haywire. “For those who want fuller hips or butt, it is a way of helping them, so that dresses can sit well on them. Once they can afford it, why not?” She queried. The price starts from N2, 500 depending on the quality.

Toyin Elegbede who deals in these underwears told Sunday Nation that most rear enhancers in the market today are padded. They are butt enhancers usually constructed with specially knitted panels or bands to push up the posterior. If you just want a lift, I believe these are the most comfortable to use. I also have designs called butt-lifters, where the rears are cut out so that the buttocks are pushed out, and then up, by bands that go around them.

Varying opinions

Cdm Eleng, a fast rising rap artiste says he does not appreciate such fad because it is not real. ‘It is a fake sh*t and the ladies are just out to freak the men,’ he said.

City Milliner and interior decorator, Nena Kal Hunter says the whole idea of butt pads is very funny to her. “I’m personally not against anyone who wishes to enhance their body shape with butt pads, as long as they have an explanation for their partners when they eventually take them off.” She advised that they should also ensure to get good quality, well-rounded ones that don’t appear lop-sided when sat on, so that they don’t look like grown women wearing diapers.

“If body shape enhancers makes a person happy, why not?” She reasoned.

Alex Okoroji, actress, self-help mentor and daughter of former PMAN president, Tony Okoroji explained that “People have the choice to do what makes them happy and helps their self-esteem. I have nothing against those who feel like they need something extra to validate themselves. That said, I’m personally not in support of padded butts or any other form of implants because as a self-help mentor, my purpose is to promote the ideals of being authentic, of being naked. And being naked is really about being transparent, real, vulnerable, accepting who you are, just the way you are and being comfortable in your own skin. It’s about understanding that there’s beauty in flaws, and that the awry ideals of perfection that society applauds is in fact, a mirage.”

According to her, “It is deceptive when people present themselves to be what they are not. Just imagine a situation where a man chooses a lady because of her big round a***, only to get intimate and find out it’s not real. Besides, there are exercises women can do to get rounder buttocks, like squats & lunges. I say this, because I have tried them and they work. The solution to a problem isn’t to hide it, but to fix it. And to me, the most logical way to fix body issues is to exercise; there are no major risks to that. And there’s nothing better than having people who love and accept you just the way you are.”

Journalist and poet, Gbenga Ogundare says it is ‘a unique revolution’ in the world of fashion. “Indeed, it is a clear indicator that more men are being attracted to women with surplus flesh. Although it is difficult to conclude that those artificial endowments have come to stay.”

December 13, 2015