By; AUWAL AHMED IBRAHIM
The Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), rushed to accuse the Senate President, Chief Godswill Akpabio on 2024 Budget padding.
Senator Abdul Ningi, the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum w rushed to the press to blame the Senate President when consultation should be the first thing to do.
The aide and Special Assistant to the Senate President on NGOs and Diaspora, Dr. Jibril Lawal Tafida countered the Northern Senators Forum for not contacting the Senate President before their media outburst to clear the air.
Dr. Tafida expressed dismay on the attitude of the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum for not working with formalities of verification when there are some people to contact before reaching to the Senate President for accusation.
However, Premium Times had it that one of the senators from the forum said that the projects complained about were probably inserted into the budget by unknown persons while he (the Senate President) was hospitalised during the budgetary process.
The Senate President also explained that the padding may have happened when he was hospitalised.
Surely, there was a time the Senate President was hospitalised and the Committee on Appropriation is responsible for the budget expenditure allocation in which a Northerner from the Northern Senators Forum is the vice Chairman.
To seek a solution, the Northern Senators Forum may have contacted Senator Ali Ndume, the vice chairman of the Senator Solomon Adeola-led Appropriation Committee before the media onslaught on baseless accusation.
Like what Dr. Jibril Lawal Tafida said, there are many ways to resolve the problem of the senate affairs by not putting blames on others and making public outrage when Northerners are faced with insecurity problems.
Surely, what the Northern Senators Forum did will not fetch any respect to them, rather than questions on interest in the press conference because they have a Vice Chairman of the Appropriation Committee who was the former Senate President’s strong pillar in the Chamber.
As the Senate and the presidency are working in earnest to free abducted students from kidnappers’ den the senators should stop distracting the Senate and the Presidency on things that can be resolved amicably without personal attacks and tarnishing image of the Nigerian senators.
While the Senate President assured the senators of verifying those behind the padding and inquire the reasons for such, the Northern Senators Forum should continue to work towards relieving Northerners of the security problems suffocating the region.
Auwal Ahmed Ibrahim, Goronyo is a political analyst from Kaduna and can be reached via; auwalgoronyo@gmail.com
