Truth Of Budget Padding Scam …Hon. Jubrin, Patriot Or Bloody Liar?

When the Code of Conduct Bureau early this year, ambushed Senate President Bukola Saraki over undeclared assets while Governor of Kwara State, a section of the Nigerian public cried wolf. They believed that Saraki was being hounded by powerful forces within the Federal Government and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Their conclusions were that the nation’s number three citizen was simply marked for punishment, for his audacity in flouting the ruling party’s office sharing formula and for conniving with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to hijack key offices of the upper chamber of the Nigerian National Assembly (NASS).
After protracted litigations, name calling and even (now denied) threats to probe President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Saraki took the sensible decision, reshuffled membership of juicy Senate committees, and posted men of the Leader of APC, Ahmed Tinubu and other influential politicians into lucrative offices. That is a kind of change.
In those thorny moments, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara was tucked away comfortably in an illusion of grandeur and even tried to intercede on Saraki’s behalf. Apparently in the good books of the Commander-in-Chief, when the Senate raised alarm over budget padding and secret exchange of the official copy of the 2016 Budget proposal with a strange one, the House quickly said, its official copy, as handed to it by the President; was intact.
Of course, no Nigerian thought something could be wrong with such secure copy, not to talk of padding or in the layman’s language, sneaking-in spurious projects with cost implications running to billions of Naira. All that became public recently following the removal of the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin.
Last week, Jubrin slammed Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor for compelling him to divert N40 billion of N100 billion Constituency Projects budget allocation for their private uses. Describing the Speaker and the House leadership as corrupt, Jubrin said he would make further revelations until the leadership is removed, if only to ensure that only righteous people lead the House in 2019.
Speaker Dogara denied the allegations and threatened to sue Jubrin if he refused to withdraw the allegation within a week, as it amounted to libel. This, to Jubrin, was a tall order and threatened to furnish the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with even more damaging information on the lingering scandal.
Last Saturday, Jubrin revealed that his lawyers have already approached the EFCC in his effort to unravel how Speaker Dogara and others padded the 2016 budget. In a tweet, Jubrin said, “I will not and never apologise to a shameless fraud in high office who has glaringly abused public trust, like Speaker Dogara and others.”
Jubrin, like Dogara is a member of the APC. He represents Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives. This is why his accusations against a fellow party member, and in fact, the Speaker of the House, is strange. Jubrin, it was earlier gathered was removed as chairman of the Appropriations Committee for opposing immunity for presiding officers of the Assembly.
But a week ago, Dogara had denied the suggestion, describing it as baseless. In a statement by the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, Dogara said, ‘our attention has been drawn to media statements made by the former Chairman of the House’ Appropriation Committee… wherein he made wild allegations against the House leaders.
“We wish to say that it is the prerogative of the Selection Committee of the House to appoint and remove committee chairmen.
“That power has been so exercised in the case of Hon. Abdulmumin, as chairman of Appropriations Committee.
“Most of the allegations on the 2016 Budget process and his opposition to immunity of presiding officers are non-issues and mere after-thought manufactured simply because the House relieved him of his position.
“If he had all these facts before, why didn’t he make them public? Why is he doing that now? The statement queried and finally described Jubrin’s allegation as a cheap blackmail on the part of Hon. Jubrin especially, to even insinuate that he was removed because he opposed the immunity bill.
But in what seemed a fury of defiance, the lawmaker Wednesday, last week said, ‘he stood by his allegations and described Speaker Dogara’s threat of legal action as ‘quite predictable.’
“He failed to realise that the law is not intended to protect corrupt people. It is such a shame.” Jubrin replied.
He went further to say: “I am happy to announce that my lawyers have officially approached the EFCC and ICPC towards working out a date for me to personally submit my petition against Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun, Whip Doguwa and Minority Leader Ogor.
“I believe, once a date is agreed with the anti-corruption agencies, we would have begun the process of making these characters pay for abusing their offices,” Jubrin further threatened.
While Nigerians crossed their fingers to see where the corruption saga would end, lawyers of Jubrin, Friday, July 22nd, raised the alarm that there were attempts to blackmail and harass their client, Jubrin, with a view to obstruct justice.
The lawyers, Messrs Hammart & Co., Law Bond Solicitors and Doka Chambers, in a statement said, ‘you will recall that our client is in dispute with the quartet (Speaker Dogara and the three other House Officers) over his (Jubrin’s) refusal and inability to admit into the National Budget of 2016, the sum of N30 billion at the behest of these quartet and also his refusal to cover up the decision of Speaker Dogara and others’ unilateral decision to distribute to themselves N40 billion out of the N100 billion allocated to the entire National Assembly in addition to what our client considers as wasteful projects of over N20 billion to their (quartet) various constituencies.
“We want to state unequivocally that our client stands by the above assertion and will at the appropriate time prove same.”
This indeed is how dirty the House’s budget padding scandal has gone. And there is no telling how messier it can get. Amidst all these, House members are divided, with a part considering impeachment of the affected officers, while the other simply wants to save the Speaker.
But what is the truth behind the saga? Is Jubrin merely a frustrated member determined to take his pound of flesh in relation for his removal as Appropriations Committee chairman or a patriotic whistle blower? Or is Dogara an example of a ‘pretender doing the worse’ and is merely using House Information machinery to drown the shrill voice of the whistle blower?
If Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose were to ask these questions, he would describe both accused and accuser as saints, because they both are members of the ruling party. Last week, he raised the alarm that while he was being hounded over house built for him; nothing has been said about an Ekiti State citizen donating N1.5 billion towards the election of President Buhari, the anti-corruption war’s Commander-in-Chief.
The scandal rocking the House leadership should not follow that path, if the anti-corruption campaign of the Buhari government is to make any meaning to Nigerians. For now, most Nigerians do not consider it a true battle against corruption. They see it as war of vengeance against opposition politicians. If not, they wonder, what did the Federal Government do about the budget padding saga, even long before Jubrin roped in Speaker Dogara and others? What happened to the insider who exchanged copies of the budget, in the first place?
My Agony is that it normally takes the EFCC longer hours to travel from its office in Abuja to the National Assembly, also in Abuja than to any bank keeping Gov. Fayose’s earnings in Ekiti State. This is if the allegation is not against an opposition politician. Hope this doesn’t end that way.

Soye Wilson Jamabo