Mr. President, after your first coming, Nigerians changed

Last week at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa was mostly quiet and  drowsy, typical of the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was away to Saudi Aradia and Qatar on oil diplomacy. But then, it turned out an interesting week nonetheless. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had the opportunity to oversee things for a whole week, although not as acting president this time.

In his usual way of breaking local news abroad, President Buhari finally broke the ice on the budget scandal in faraway Riyadh.

Buhari declared that those who padded the budget would be decisively dealt with. (Yes, he has a knack for speaking to domestic issues from abroad). The president said he’d never heard the words “budget padding” throughout his incarnation in government.  So I decided to look up the meaning of the word budget padding.

According to a definition by ehow.com, padding the budget means making the budget proposal larger than the actual estimates for the project.
This is done either by increasing a project’s expenses or decreasing its expected revenue. The Oxford English dictionary described it as an action intended to defraud by adding false items to an expenses claim or bill.

The big question now is, who padded the budget? At what point was it padded? How did the culprit/s even gain access to the budget document submitted by the President to the National Assembly.

While the president still blows hot and threatens fire and brimstone, it is pertinent to provide answers to questions like how the ‘budget mafia’, as the presidency puts it, got round to committing such fraud. Who would dare touch a document perceived as sacrosanct, though still at proposal stage? What punishment should be meted on those who did this? What if the person/s, in listening to the president’s body language, thought they were doing him a favour?

As embarrassing as this is for the president and his team and indeed the entire. Nigerians, another question that comes to mind is how did we get here? First the budget was declared missing after the president submitted it to the NASS on the December 22. Who borrowed the budget from the hallowed chambers and later returned it with all such discrepancies?

Firstly, only adjustments made on the State House proposed spending were noticed. Then others started to unfold as the budget began unravelling as most ministers denied the budget presented to them at the National Assembly on the basis that the figures were differed from the proposal they earlier presented.

While some ministers denied their budget, seeking permission to redo the proposal because that was not what the president submitted, one even collapsed when he saw the new figures in the budget (this is on a lighter note, but I heard he slumped though).

Mr President, I can therefore relate to your anger and embarrassment. But while
you were gone after your first coming as president, you can see, Nigerians have learnt a lot of things including new ways of avoiding traps. They act first and think later.

First, they learnt how to scale walls to steal official documents. They also learnt to send rats, ghosts, witches and wizards to infiltrate the budget, not to eat out pages but to alter the document. ( In case you’re wondering, I’m just helping to visualise the Nollywood movie that would  be made from the budget scandal).
Thankfully the document would soon be passed by the National Assembly and Nigerians will finally move on to the next drama. But of course, not to be forgotten in a hurry.

Meanwhile, while Mr President was away in Saudi Arabia, some August visitors came calling at the Villa to see the VP Osinbajo. The place was becoming too boring with all the private meetings, so we thought one more private meeting, but with some action won’t hurt.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Senate President Bukola Saraki; APC National Leader; Bola Tinubu, and other high profile party chieftains stormed the villa. It was exciting for the journalists as it opened a debate on the agenda of the meeting. Like they say in typical Nigerian parlance “a toad doesn’t run in the afternoon because its wants to exercise”.

Typical of most meetings that hold in the vice president’s wing, this too was private and journalists were not allowed to cover it. It would have been easier to keep flies off an exposed meat than to keep journalists away from this.

If this was a secret meeting, it should have been taken to the VP’s official residence or even held outside the Aso Rock premises, away from the prying eyes of journalists. The corridor on the VPs’ wing was packed with aides of the guests and journalists alike.

At the end of the closed-door meeting which lasted for a little over 3 hours, the chieftains emerged without letting on anything. In fact, Mr Senate President headed out one route while Atiku took the other. While it seemed none of them wanted to speak, journalists waited at the entrance, impeding the exit of ‘Jagaban’, as Tinubu is popularly known, and cajoled him into giving some insight into what was discussed. A colleague even went as far shouting: ‘Nobody can gag the ‘Jagaban’ all in a bid to get him to bulge (as you know, politicians love praise singing).  Still, none could say a word- even the party chairman quietly sneaked off.

Who will tell Nigerians what really happened in there? Well as a concerned citizen, I decided to nose around just to get something. Sources from the grapevines confirmed that discussed at the meeting centred around Saraki’s trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and how to distribute the appointments amongst the different camps of those who worked for the president’s election bid. My source said no concrete decision was reached, though, as the Osinbajo told them he could not make any move because he is not the head of the party. No wonder they came out looking like they had a verbal exchange.

BDSUNDAY had last week emphasized that now is the appropriate time to lobby for positions after the president axed about 30 heads of agencies and parastatals to apparently make room for party faithfuls who worked for the the APC electoral victory.

Well, if you know you worked, you can try your luck – all, the Ooni of Ife got his own appointment after visiting the president last week.

President Buhari was also in Mecca lays week accompanied by some governors,
to pray for the country.

I can bet he must have prayed for the strength to chase more corrupt Nigerians and recover looted funds. He must also have prayed for a rebound in global oil prices and for the naira to firm up against the dollar (If possible, to fulfil his election campaign promise of getting the naira exchange for $1 in shortest possible time).

Not meaning to make light of this particular trip though, it reminds me of when the previous administration went on the same prayer spree to the Jerusalem. Governors, Ministers, alongside the President, were photographed praying and repenting on behalf of Nigeria and begging God to intervene. While I won’t pretend that the country needs prayers (I probably need it more than anyone else), it is better to face the reality as the bible aptly puts it that ‘faith without work is dead’.
The president has continuously reeled out Nigeria’s problems. It  is time for him to sit at home just a bit and seek for Nigerian solutions to Nigeria’s problems -Just saying.

Elizabeth Archibong