Budget insertions: Bagudu, Akpabio, BudgIT demand deeper scrutiny

•Seek verification of alleged unlawful entries  • BudgIT proposes 90-day submission rule, performance test for MDAs

From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja

Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and fiscal accountability groups have called for deeper scrutiny of Nigeria’s national budget, insisting that questionable provisions should be thoroughly interrogated while allegations of unlawful insertions must be verified before being presented as facts.

They spoke yesterday at the 2026 Capacity-Building Workshop of the Senate Press Corps in Abuja, with the theme, “Leveraging Legislative Oversight and Media Collaboration to Safeguard the National Budget from Unlawful Insertions.”

While Bagudu challenged the media to interrogate budget provisions within their proper context, Akpabio urged journalists to expose waste without turning allegations into established facts.

BudgIT Foundation, on its part, asked the National Assembly to overhaul the budget process by requiring the Executive to submit annual spending proposals at least 90 days before the end of the financial year and compelling Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to account for previous allocations before receiving fresh funds.

In his address, Bagudu called for a broader national conversation on the size of Nigeria’s budget and how more resources could be mobilised to fund development.

He said Nigeria’s limited fiscal space, relative to its population and development needs, required the country to confront difficult questions about revenue mobilisation and the scale of public investment required to achieve its development aspirations.

According to him, the ambition of building a $1 trillion economy under the Federal Government’s development agenda would require a rethink of the country’s approach to funding development.

“Should we continue with a budget that leaves our populace with one of the smallest budgets, or should we consider how we can mobilise more resources?” he asked.

The minister said the media had a critical role in helping citizens understand the rationale behind budgetary choices, urging journalists to investigate provisions thoroughly rather than draw conclusions from figures without adequate context.

He said alleged budget insertions should also be subjected to proper investigation, stressing that an unfamiliar or controversial provision was not automatically evidence of an irregularity.

Bagudu cited provisions that might appear questionable outside their local context but could be intended to address genuine needs, including water infrastructure in underserved communities and equipment for fishing communities.

“We are dealing with human processes and human errors. Therefore, vigilance is necessary, and the media and legislative oversight should remain vigilant,” he said.

The minister also urged a balanced approach to budget transparency, noting that while citizens have a right to know how public resources are deployed, some information could have implications for national security or strategic interests.

He challenged the tendency to regard capital expenditure as inherently more valuable than recurrent expenditure, arguing that spending on security, education, healthcare, human capital and public-sector personnel could also have direct developmental consequences.

Bagudu further stressed the importance of meeting debt-service obligations, warning that failure to honour such commitments could affect borrowing costs and have wider consequences for private-sector operators.

Earlier, Akpabio, whose speech was delivered by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, said the media and Parliament had different responsibilities but shared an obligation to the Nigerian people.

“I ask for no tame press. We serve the same Republic under different obligations: Parliament must deliberate, legislate and oversee; the press must inquire, verify and report.”

Akpabio warned against allowing sensational claims to overshadow verification, particularly at a time when fabricated documents, images and voices could circulate rapidly.

“The old editorial question, ‘How do we know?’ has never been more urgent,” he said, stressing that reporters should check documents against their sources while editors should ensure that all sides to serious allegations are heard.

He said parliamentary journalism required particular care in distinguishing between legislative processes and their outcomes.

“A motion is not a law. A bill at First Reading is not an Act. A committee recommendation is not necessarily the decision of the Senate. An accusation made in debate is not proof of guilt, and a proposed allocation is not money already spent.”

Akpabio said the distinctions were particularly important in budget reporting, noting that the National Assembly has constitutional powers to examine the administration and disbursement of appropriated funds.

“Where there is credible evidence of wrongdoing, let it be examined without fear. Where there is waste, let it be exposed. But an allegation does not become a fact through repetition,” he said.

Taking the debate beyond verification to reform of the budget process itself, BudgIT Foundation argued that legislative scrutiny should begin long before lawmakers start negotiating individual expenditure lines.

Presenting a paper titled, “From Insertion to Interrogation: The National Assembly’s Role in Evaluating the Executive’s Budget Proposal,” Director of BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde, represented by the Country Director of the foundation, Vahyala Kwaga, said scrutiny should be anchored on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, sector plans, previous budget performance and evidence of what Nigerians received from earlier allocations.

“The Assembly’s power over the budget is real and constitutionally unlimited. The question is no longer whether it has power, but what that power is used for,” the presentation stated.

BudgIT argued that before approving fresh allocations, lawmakers should establish what was appropriated, released and actually delivered in preceding years instead of concentrating mainly on whether an MDA should receive a higher or lower figure.

It consequently proposed that the Executive should submit the annual budget at least 90 days before the end of the financial year to give lawmakers sufficient time to interrogate thousands of expenditure lines.

The organisation also called for restoration of the Medium-Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) as the critical link between national development priorities and annual appropriations, insisting that no new project should be considered without a clear connection to the relevant sector strategy.

According to BudgIT, every budget line should pass six tests: whether it is traceable to the National Plan, MTEF and sector strategy; what happened to previous allocations; whether the project duplicates another; whether its cost is reasonable; whether there are relevant audit queries; and whether there is evidence of citizens’ need.

It said the process should result in “a written, evidence-based committee report to the Executive for each MDA, not only a negotiated figure.”

BudgIT further urged lawmakers to interrogate revenue assumptions, deficit and debt levels, sectoral ceilings, fiscal risks and the performance of previous spending before approving a new budget.

It also proposed the use of Artificial Intelligence to analyse thousands of expenditure lines and flag possible duplicate projects, vague descriptions, unusual unit costs and projects that have remained classified as “ongoing” for several years.

The organisation, however, cautioned against surrendering legislative judgement to technology, stressing that “AI assists; legislators decide,” and that every machine-generated alert must be subjected to human verification.

Similarly, the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) called for every budget provision to be justified, transparent, properly costed and measurable.

In a paper titled, “Critical Scrutiny of Budget Line Items: Preventing ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ and Strengthening the Roles of Legislators and the Media,” presented by Ebu Emmanuel, CISLAC said lawmakers and journalists should interrogate every alteration made to a budget proposal.

It said scrutiny should establish what changed, why it changed, who justified it, what it would cost, where it would be implemented, who would benefit and how delivery would be verified.

CISLAC maintained that accountability should cover the entire budget cycle, from proposal, justification and verification to approval, disclosure, implementation, monitoring and audit.

Managing Director and Publisher of The Eagle Times Newspaper, Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Tabuko Kennedy, also challenged journalists to go beyond headline figures and official statements and “follow the money” from allocation and release through expenditure, output and eventual impact.

He proposed the establishment of a Senate Press Corps Budget Accountability Reporting Desk, production of a joint budget scrutiny report shortly after budget presentation, creation of a public database of major projects and physical tracking of selected projects from the budget document to their locations.

“The media must not become the loudspeaker of either the legislature or the executive. Our loyalty must be to facts and the Nigerian public,” he said.

Chairman of the Senate Press Corps, Taiye Odewale, said controversy surrounding alleged insertions into the 2026 budget underscored the need for stronger legislative and media scrutiny.

He said the objective was to combine the oversight powers of the National Assembly with the “periscopic lens of the media” to detect questionable entries and strengthen the integrity of the annual budget.

Akpabio consequently challenged parliamentary journalists to maintain their professional independence, deepen their understanding of the Constitution and legislative procedures, expose credible cases of waste and wrongdoing and ensure that their reports reflect what budget documents and verifiable evidence actually establish.