News
Budget failure: No excuses for failing on the document you prepared, angry Senators berate Tinubu
The Senate, on Monday expressed strong resentment to the multiple budget implementations in a fiscal year by the federal government, as experienced in 2025, berating the executive for the gaps in the preparation and execution of the document.
The lawmakers could not understand the reason for the excuses being offered by the government over the absence of wholesome implementation of a document it prepared exclusively, saying the situation unacceptable to Nigerians.
Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, had told members of the Senate Committee on Finance at an interactive meeting with leading managers of the nation’s economy on the 2026-2028 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) that while revenues for 2024 budget had been met, that of 2025 had not been met and would therefore be fused into the 2026 edition.
This, obviously did not sit well with the Senators, with Sani Musa, Senator representing Niger East on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Chairman of the committee, stating that the executive must endeavour to present realisable proposals to avoid the ugly development.
Briefing the committee on the development, Edun said: “Funding for the capital components of the 2024 budget have been met through realisation of the total projection of N26trillion revenue but that of 2025 have not been met.
“Out of projected N40trillion revenue for 2025 fiscal year, only N10trillion has been realised, leaving a shortfall of N30trillion and consequently making the federal government roll over 70% of capital projects captured in 2025 fiscal year to 2026.”
Senators, however, railed against the development, maintaining that a government that prepared a budget, should not be the one making such excuses on its implementation, neither should it be excused for doing a shoddy job of haphazard execution.
Danjuma Goje, Gombe Central, while expressing dissatisfaction said: “This ugly situation we found ourselves on multiple budget implementations should please end by this year . It is not acceptable. Things must be normalised from next year.”
Echoing the same sentiment, Olalere Oyewumi, Osun West, told the minister that since budgetary proposals were not given to the government by the governed, it should present realisable proposals to avoid non-implementations which usually dovetailed into multiple implementations in subsequent years.
Victor Umeh, Anambra Central on the and Ireti Kingibe, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), both on the platform of the Labour Party (LP), wondered why the federal government did not fill the missing gaps in revenue targets, with borrowings approved for it from time to time by the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly.
Musa, however, came to the rescue of the minister, assuring his colleagues and by extension, Nigerians, that the required normalisation in budget projections and implementation shall be done from 2026.
He said a three-man ad hoc committee shall be set up by the committee to liaise with the minister and the accountant-general of the federation on payment of local contractors for projects executed in 2024 before expiration of the budget on 31st of this month.
Musa, particularly tasked Zacch Adedeji, Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), to work towards realising N35trillion as target revenue for 2026 fiscal year and not the earlier projected N31trillion he mentioned.
Adedeji, while reaffirming that the body would do its best, explained that under him, FIRS realised N20.2trillion revenue in 2024 and N25.2trillion in 2025, but regretted that the huge revenue being realised including those coming from other agencies, such as Customs, were being swallowed and made insufficient by multiple budget implementations in a fiscal year.
Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, and Heineken Lokpobiri Minister of State (Petroleum), defended the parameters set for the N54. 4trillion 2026 budget, saying it stood on 1.84million oil production per day; $64.85 oil price benchmark; and N1, 512.00 to 1USD as exchange rate, among others.
President Bola Tinubu had last Thursday, transmitted the 2026-2028 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper to the Senate for consideration and subsequent approval.
The letter was read by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin, APC, Kano North, read: “It is with pleasure that I forward the 2026 to 2028 Medium-Time Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF, and FSP for the kind consideration and approval of the Senate.
“The 2026 to 2028 MTEF and FSP was approved during the Federal Executive Council meeting of December 3, 2025, as the 2026 budget of the Federal Government will be prepared, based on parameters.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Terrorists strike Ibadan again! Abduct ex-Minister’s sister, twin children
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: Troops rescue wife of kidnapped General! *Terrorists flee scene
-
News4 weeks agoEmeka Ike: I’ll make example of Lere Olayinka for prying into my privacy
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: Count me out, Okonkwo tells Atiku *Amaechi VP’s choice an insult to Ndigbo
-
News2 weeks agoDickson: Obi, a big asset to NDC, we’re working together … but!
-
News3 days agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
Columns4 weeks agoAtiku-Amaechi tag-team: An indication of ADC’s hideous plan for Obi
-
News2 weeks agoOvia, ex-Zenith Bank boss swings into luxury apartments *Flats hit $2.8million price tag