Yusuf Galambi, a member of the House of Representatives representing Gwaram federal constituency in Jigawa State, has raised allegations against President Bola Tinubu, claiming that the president presented “empty” boxes purportedly containing the 2024 budget during the joint session of the National Assembly.
In an interview with journalists over the weekend, Mr. Galambi, a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), asserted that President Tinubu read out the budget speech, including proposals for various sectors, but failed to provide lawmakers with the actual documents, departing from the tradition observed by previous presidents.
RoyalTimes reported that President Tinubu had presented the proposed N27.5 trillion budget for 2024 on Wednesday to the joint session of the National Assembly, co-chaired by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen.
“The president read out to us his speech on the proposed budget but we’ve not seen the document to work on.”
“Of course, he read the estimates for the various sectors. But as it has always been the tradition, a document is always presented (to the lawmakers) but he (Mr Tinubu) didn’t do that,” the lawmaker said on Friday morning.
After delivering his budget speech, President Tinubu followed the official procedure by placing two boxes, colored in the Nigerian national flag of green-white-green, on the table in front of the presiding officers.
However, Mr. Galambi alleged that the boxes were empty and accused the leaders of the National Assembly of covering up the act.
“The constitution has made it clear (that a document must be presented) but this time, it was only a reading on paper. They didn’t provide the document for us to go through and see what is proposed for each sector. Maybe they’ll bring it later,” He said.
Responding to the allegations, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Print Media, dismissed the claims as nonsensical and aimed at misleading the public.
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