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The Nigerian Senate has suspended the 2025 budget defence for the Officemof Auditor General for the Federation.
The development may result to zero allocation to the OAGF as the Senate has earlier scheduled Wednesday 22nd January, 2025 as deadline for budget defences to pave way for Committee on Appropriation to harmonise reports from various Committes.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Ahmed Wadada sent the Auditor General, S.K Chira and his team packing due to ill-preparation and lack of diligent handling of his documents.
Chira appeared before the Commutree unprepared and could not answer questions posed to him concerning the 2024 budget performance his office.
Anger stirred up as a copy of budget documents being read by the Auditor General was different from copies made available to the Committee members.
But allying fears of missing the budget chances, Wadada told the press after the Committee meeting that: “It is left for the Auditor General for the Federation to go get prepared and return, even in two hours now that he has been told that Wednesday is the deadline.
“He is the Auditoe General auditing government agencies, Senate Public Accounts Committee is statutorily empowered to audit his office.
In a renewed effort to address demographic data gaps, the Senate has pledged to prioritize the execution of a national population census before the current administration’s tenure expires in 2027.
The commitment was reaffirmed during a budget defense meeting with Nasir Isa Kwarra, the Chairman of the National Population Commission, who emphasized its significance.
The Chairman of the Committee on National Identity Management and Population, Senator Abdul Ningi, said, “We will not rest on our oars until a census is conducted before this administration ends”.
He revealed that the Senate was preparing to meet with President Bola Tinubu to stress the urgency of conducting the census in 2025. “We will soon engage the President on this matter and formally write to him through the Senate President, highlighting the need for a census this year,” he said.
Senator Olalere Oyewunmi highlighted the pressing need for a census, advocating for concerted efforts to ensure the President prioritizes its implementation to support effective governance.
