By Adai Edwin Adai
Every budget season in Nigeria follows a familiar cycle. Allegations of duplicated projects, inflated costs, opaque budget insertions, and controversies surrounding constituency allocations dominate public discourse. Investigations are announced, accusations are exchanged, and eventually the nation moves on until the next budget cycle repeats the same pattern.
The problem, however, is not merely about duplicated budget lines or inflated contracts. It is fundamentally a structural problem within Nigeria’s budgetary appropriation and oversight framework.
The present system places the National Assembly in an uncomfortable dual position. Legislators participate extensively in shaping detailed budget allocations while simultaneously exercising oversight over the implementation of those same allocations. Such an arrangement inevitably creates questions about independence, accountability, and public confidence.
Nigeria cannot continue to depend on temporary investigations whenever controversy erupts. What the country requires is a comprehensive institutional reform that addresses the root causes of fiscal inefficiency rather than its symptoms.
The first reform must be the establishment of a genuinely independent budget audit mechanism. Major budget investigations should no longer be conducted primarily by institutions directly involved in the appropriation process. Instead, forensic examinations should be led by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, working alongside agencies such as the EFCC, ICPC, Bureau of Public Procurement, professional accounting bodies, and accredited civil society organisations. Independent forensic audit firms should also be engaged where necessary, with their reports made publicly available.
Transparency must also become the cornerstone of public finance.
Nigeria urgently needs a comprehensive National Project Inventory, a single digital platform containing every federally funded project, its exact location, implementing ministry or agency, budget allocation, contractor, commencement date, completion timeline, and implementation status. Every project should be geotagged so that citizens can independently verify whether it actually exists.
More importantly, every budget amendment and insertion should be published before final passage of the Appropriation Bill. Public funds should never be allocated in secrecy.
Equally important is the need to rethink the entire concept of constituency projects.
Rather than allowing projects to emerge largely from political bargaining, they should originate from documented community development priorities validated by local governments, traditional institutions, development experts, and civil society organisations.
Legislators should not be viewed as project contractors or implementers. Their constitutional responsibility is to represent the needs of their constituents, advocate for equitable allocations, and ensure effective oversight of executive implementation.
The Bureau of Public Procurement must equally assume a stronger gatekeeping role. Every constituency and zonal intervention project should undergo independent verification of cost, technical specifications, and procurement compliance before contracts are awarded. Regular field inspections should become routine rather than exceptional.
Perhaps the most important reform is restoring the constitutional separation of powers.
The legislature should concentrate on making laws, approving budgets, and conducting oversight. The Executive should bear full responsibility for project execution and procurement. Once these responsibilities become blurred, accountability becomes difficult to establish.
Nigeria should also redefine what constitutes legislative performance.
Public expectations should no longer be measured solely by the number of projects a legislator claims to have attracted. Rather, annual legislative scorecards should assess members based on bills sponsored, policy contributions, committee participation, oversight effectiveness, constituency engagement, and monitoring of public projects.
Citizens deserve representatives who legislate effectively, not merely politicians who distribute projects.
Civil society must equally become a permanent participant in Nigeria’s fiscal governance architecture. Budget hearings should be more inclusive, project information more accessible, and independent monitoring more institutionalised. Public accountability becomes stronger when citizens possess the information necessary to question government decisions.
Implementing these reforms will require political courage.
Government should establish a high-level reform task force to draft the necessary legislation and administrative guidelines. Some reforms, particularly the National Project Inventory and digital transparency portal can begin almost immediately. Others involving constitutional and legislative restructuring may require phased implementation over the next eighteen months.
Nigeria’s democratic institutions are capable of renewal.
The objective of these reforms is not to weaken the National Assembly but to strengthen it. A legislature respected for legislative excellence, rigorous oversight, transparency, and constitutional discipline commands greater public confidence than one associated primarily with budget controversies.
Fiscal accountability should never depend on personalities or political goodwill. It must be built into institutions.
If Nigeria succeeds in reforming its budgetary architecture, the nation will not only reduce corruption and waste but also improve public service delivery, strengthen democratic governance, and restore citizens’ confidence in government.
The time has come to move beyond reacting to budget scandals. The time has come to redesign the system itself.
~Adai Edwin Adai
Executive Chairman, African Institute for Statecraft International (AISI).
