Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has accused President Bola Tinubu of allowing budget padding by the National Assembly, citing the inclusion of road projects in the 2026 budget of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education (NCAOOSCE).
Speaking at the 8th Anniversary Lecture organised by Penpushing Media in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Falana said reports showing that about ₦8.4 billion was allocated for road projects in Ogun, Ekiti and Katsina states through the education commission reflected unlawful budget insertions.
“It was recently disclosed that a road in Ogun State will be constructed with a sum of ₦1.4 billion. And that is what we call budget padding. Members of the National Assembly insert projects into the budget of agencies of government,” Falana said.
The NCAOOSCE had distanced itself from the projects, stating that lawmakers inserted them during the budget approval process.
Falana argued that such practices undermine transparency and accountability, urging the government to remove projects outside the statutory mandates of affected agencies. He also maintained that repeated budget padding persists because the President has not exercised his constitutional authority to reject questionable insertions before signing budgets into law, while calling on citizens, the media and civil society to continue demanding accountability.
