Nigeria’s Budgets: A Cesspool Of Fraud And Self-Enrichment, Laments Dino Melaye

• Former Senator Dino Melaye slams Nigeria’s budgeting system as a tool for corruption

• Accuses lawmakers of manipulating budget figures to siphon public funds

• Calls out the National Assembly’s failure to check the executive’s excesses

Eko Hot Blog reports that in a scathing critique, former Senator Dino Melaye has lashed out at Nigeria’s budgeting system, labeling it as a avenue for fraud, deception, and self-enrichment by a select few.

The former lawmaker, who represented Kogi West Senatorial District, expressed grave concerns over the manipulation of budget figures by elected officials for personal gain.

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“Our budgeting system is now an avenue to cheat, defraud the country, and enrich a few elected principal officers through manipulation of budget numbers, yet we still try to legalise the act,” Melaye stated, according to a report by Vanguard.

Melaye’s criticism came in the wake of the National Assembly’s decision to increase its 2024 budgetary allocation by a staggering 74.23 percent to N344.85 billion, the highest ever. This move, he argued, lacked national significance and appeared to be a ploy to siphon public funds.

The former Senator further condemned the complicity between the executive and legislative branches, accusing them of working in partnership to perpetrate this “miasma.” “The National Assembly has failed in its primary assignment of checking the excesses of the executive arm of government. The National Assembly has turned a blind eye to a huge sum of money budgeted for imaginary projects. Both now work in partnership to perpetrate this miasma. It has become the case of chop-make I-chop. Things have fallen apart,” Melaye’s statement read.

Melaye also highlighted the stark contrast between the burdens borne by ordinary citizens, such as fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate mergers, and the excessive favors granted to lawmakers by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

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His remarks come amid growing concerns over the lack of transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s budgeting process, which has long been plagued by allegations of corruption and mismanagement of public funds.

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