The worsening fiscal crisis facing the Nigerian government has put the spotlight on the extravagant culture of the country’s lawmakers as the Federal Government proposed a sum of N169 billion for lawmakers at the National Assembly, the highest in the last four years.
On October 7, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari presented before the two chambers of the National Assembly a proposed budget of N20.51 trillion for the 2023 financial year, standing as the highest budget so far in the history of Nigeria.
A review of the N20.51 trillion budget shows that the sum of N169 billion is earmarked for the National Assembly.
This is the highest allocation ever proposed by the executive for the national assembly since the present administration came into power in 2015, and if approved, it will represent a 21.58 percent increase over the approved amount allocated to the national assembly in the 2022 fiscal year.
Dataphyte’s review of Nigeria’s budget document from 2019 shows that there has been a continuous increase in the national assembly’s proposed budget except for the 10.16percent decline recorded in 2020.
In the 2019 proposed budget, the federal government earmarked N128 billion for the national assembly.
The following year, the national assembly proposed budget dropped to N115 billion, a development that may be unconnected to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
The budget went up to back N128 billion in 2021, and has increased every other year since then, hitting N169 billion in the 2023 proposed budget proposed by President.
Going by the recent trend of the national assembly jerking up its proposed budget, there are concerns that the proposed figure in the 2023 budget may further increase when the budget is approved.
Recall that the federal government earmarked N134 billion for the national assembly in the 2022 proposed budget. However, the lawmakers increased the figure by N5 billion, bringing the approved budget for the lawmakers for the 2022 fiscal year to N139 billion.
Apart from the huge budgetary allocation and annual increase in the national assembly budget that Nigerians have expressed concerns about, the lack of detailed information or breakdown of the national assembly budget has also remained a concern.
Findings showed just like in previous years, the allocation to the national assembly in the 2023 budget has no line item showing a detailed breakdown of the proposed N169 billion.