El-Rufai Blasts Tinubu’s 2025 Budget; Says Vehicles, Computers, Utensils Don’t Expire, Ministries, Others Should Stop Buying Them Every Year
Bello El-Rufai, the House of Representatives member representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency, has condemned the excessive spending outlined in the 2025 national budget.
Speaking during a session on Thursday at the National Assembly, El-Rufai criticised Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) for their continuous purchases of new vehicles and computers, stated that such expenditures are unnecessary as vehicles do not expire.
He described the recurring trend of lavish spending in every budget as unsustainable and urged that it should come to an end.
“We cannot continue to allow these budget allocations for MDAs to be spent on vehicles that do not expire,” El-Rufai stated.
Bello noted that the focus should be redirected towards projects that directly benefit citizens and enhance public service delivery.
“Sir, the recurrent issue is in every budget, even a young person like myself. We budget for vehicles every year. We budget for utensils every year. So what I would like us to do, sir, to open more revenues or block loopholes, is to look at all these ministries that are bringing their budgets. If they bought vehicles last year, please, they should just relax now.”
He added that vehicles do not expire.
“These are the little things, Mr Speaker, that if unless we start looking at them, the loopholes we talk about will not come out. I want to thank the leadership for sessions like this and other experienced members. It’s a learning opportunity. But on this, the recent reports, sir, should be implemented,” he said.
According to him, “The second and most important thing to me, since I was, well, I’m still a young man, since I was a boy, budgets every year come with new computers, new furniture.
“These things don’t expire, sir. We should cut them out totally. We can’t be asking Nigerians. We can’t have a tax reform bill that could shape the fiscal shape of this country. Well, as leaders, we are not courting anything.”
“So I urge the chairman. I I’m honored, sir, that I chair a committee that has CBN, but my budget is not on here. But committee chairman that are more experienced than myself should look into this. Nigerians are tired of every agency buying fork and knife every year. We And I say,” Bello added.
Naija News House earlier reported that the Nigerian Senate on Thursday passed the 2025 Appropriation Bill of N49.7 trillion for its second reading.
President Tinubu presented the budget before the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The budget for 2025 which has been tagged “The Restoration Budget: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity.”
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele sponsored the Bill titled: A Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N49,740,165,355,396 only.
The budget proposes N34 trillion revenue and N15 trillion debt servicing figure.
If passed, the budget will be the largest in the history of the country in naira terms.
The Senate also adjourned its plenary session until January 14, 2025, to allow lawmakers to partake in the Christmas and New Year festivities.
