Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has accused President Bola Tinubu of enabling budget padding by the National Assembly, citing the alleged insertion of a N1.4 billion road project in Ogun State into the budget of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, NCAOOSCE.
Recall that NCAOOSCE is facing scrutiny over the allocation of ₦8.4 billion for road infrastructure projects in Ogun, Ekiti, and Katsina states, which are outside its educational mandate.
The commission denied responsibility for the development, blaming the National Assembly for inserting the “off-mandate” constituency projects into its 2026 budget.
Falana, who spoke at the Penpushing Media 8th Anniversary Lecture held on Thursday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, described the development as a clear case of illegal insertions by federal lawmakers.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria called for an immediate re-examination of the budget to expunge the illegal projects.
“It was recently disclosed that a road in Ogun State will be constructed with a sum of 1.4 billion Naira. And that is what we call budget padding. Members of the National Assembly insert projects into the budget of agencies of government,” Falana said.
“Now that it has been exposed I hope there will be a re-examination and review of the budget. They were illegally inserted into the budget.”
He lamented that despite repeated exposures, the practice continues because the President fails to veto the illegal insertions, saying “We have always tried to expose them. But it appears that the President of the country allows it because,
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