In 2016, Muhammadu Buhari as president of Nigeria, vowedthat all persons involved in the padding of that year’s national budget wouldface severe punishment. Buhari described the alterations to the budget asembarrassing and disappointing, saying the document debated in the nationalassembly was completely different from what was prepared by the ministry ofbudget and national planning. BACKGROUNDThe budget controversy began in December 2015 afterlawmakers alleged that the document Buhari presented on December 22 had beensubstituted. In a letter dated January 19, Buhari told lawmakers that theoriginal document was riddled with errors. Garba Shehu, then presidential spokesman, said on February11, 2016, that the government first detected the errors and that Buhari wroteto the national assembly to correct them while welcoming further scrutiny. On February 15, 2015, Buhari sacked Yahaya Gusau asdirector-general of the budget office and appointed Tijjani Abdullahi, a formerbanker, as his replacement. ‘CULPRITS WILL NOT GO UNPUNISHED’ Addressing the Nigerian community in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,the president condemned what he described as the distortion of the budgetproposals by entrenched interests. Buhari said throughout his years in public office, he hadnever encountered budget padding until the 2016 incident. He said the unauthorised alterations had fundamentallychanged the budget from the version he presented to parliament. Buhari, however, absolved Udo Udoma, former minister ofbudget and national planning, saying he performed his duties diligently. “The culprits will not go unpunished,” Buhari said. “I have been a military governor, petroleum minister,military head of state and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund. “Never had I heard the words budget padding. Our minister ofbudget and national planning did a great job with his team. “The minister became almost half his size during the time,working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it. “What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. Itis very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it togo unpunished.”
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