BudgIT, a civic-tech organisation promoting transparency, and accountability in Nigeria, has frowned at the extension of the federal government budget for the 2023 implementation period and that of the 2023 supplementary budget to the end of 2024, while the 2024 budget is still active, describing it as an anomaly without precedence.

In a statement signed by Nancy Odimegwu, the organisation’s communications officer, BudgIT explained that the move by the government to sign another supplementary budget for the 2024 appropriation bill indicates that the country will be operating four separate budgets simultaneously.

Recall that former president Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2023 appropriation bill of N21.83 trillion into law in January 2023, a budget that was meant to run from January to December of the year. But, months after he assumed office, President Bola Tinubu signed a supplementary budget of N2.17 trillion two months before the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

In December 2023, the President asked both chambers of the National Assembly to extend the implementation period for the capital component of the budget from December 31, 2023, to March 31, 2024, along with the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget passed in November 2023.

In March, the President further requested that the National Assembly extend the implementation period for the budget from March to June 30, 2024, a request the lawmakers did not hesitate to grant. As the deadline for the budgetary appropriation was approaching, the lawmakers had a separate emergency sitting on the request from the president to extend the 2023 budget to December 2024 after a rowdy session at the lower chamber of the legislative arm of the government.

Currently, there are indications that the federal government is already drafting another 2024 Supplementary Budget, which it intends to implement alongside the 2023 Approved Budget, 2023 Supplementary Budget, and 2024 Approved Budget.

Following this development, BudgIT declared that the implications would raise questions of credibility and accountability deficiencies, as there may not be transparency in government spending.

The accountability organisation went on to say that this practice contradicts Nigeria’s constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, which require the government to “identify and implement only projects and programmes that align with Nigeria’s overarching development goals, reduce inequality, and improve the lives of citizens, the majority of whom are multidimensionally poor.”

The statement partly reads, “For a brief period, Nigeria returned to the January – December budget calendar in 2019 but retrogressed from the 2020 fiscal year. From 2020 to date, the Federal Government has routinely extended the implementation period for the capital budgets beyond 12 calendar months-a practice that negates the principle of annuality of public budgets. The National Assembly had initially extended the implementation of the 2023 Approved Budget and 2023 Supplementary Budget to June 30, 2024, and now to December 31, 2024. If allowed to be implemented, the practice would convert Nigeria’s annual budget into a biennial one, a practice neither provided for by the 1999 Constitution nor the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.

“More worrisome is the fact that the Federal Government is currently drafting another 2024 Supplementary budget, which it intends to implement alongside 2023 Approved Budget, 2023 Supplementary Budget, and 2024 Approved Budget, thereby resulting in the simultaneous implementation of four budgets-an anomalies with no precedence. Standard practice should be that projects not catered to within a fiscal year are rolled over to the budget of a new fiscal year.

“The concurrent implementation of four budgets will lead to severe budget credibility issues, as revenues projected in 2024 alone would most likely be used in implementing four different budgets, negatively impacting service delivery in critical social sectors and the provision of essential public infrastructure,” said Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT’s Country Director.

“BudgIT identified many frivolous items in the 2023 Approved Budget and 2023 Supplementary Budget that will compete with essential projects in the 2024 Budget for the meagre resources available to the Federal Government.

“To this end, we call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to amend the complications of this convoluted budgeting system and return to a disciplined January to December Budget Calendar. We also urge the Federal Government to identify and implement only the projects and programmes that align with Nigeria’s overarching development goals, reduce inequality, and improve the lives of citizens, the bulk of whom are multidimensionally poor.”