BudgIT, a civic organisation that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, and to facilitate societal change, has said that the National Assembly budget is shrouded in secrecy.
BudgIT’s principal lead, Gabriel Okeowo, said aside from the lawmakers being ranked as world’s top-paid legislators, at public expense, the annual budget of the National Assembly was a one-line statutory transfer, which was neither reviewed by any authority nor, at the very least, made accessible to the public, thus enabling unbridled corruption.
He said, at this age of digital governance plus global calls for transparency in public institutions, it was a national disrepute that the parliament had refused to eschew anti-democratic practices, as it continued to bury its yearly allocations under the hallowed chambers.
He added, “More disappointing is the fact that, despite Nigeria’s membership in Open Government Partnership and tons of pledges by Senate President Bukola Saraki to run an “open NASS,” the National Assembly immediately relapsed into its default setting, after a breakdown of the budget was made public in 2017, thanks to public pressure.
“Asserting that the 2017 record must be made permanent, we are making a renewed demand from the leadership of the eighth Assembly to fully redeem its promise. Starting again with the 2019 budget, a line-by-line breakdown of the NASS allocation must be made public going forward. That is the ultimate way the legislature can lead by example in making public accountability a Nigerian culture.”
He called on Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara to leave behind a great legacy, one that history would never forget, by truly and finally opening NASS.
