Senate Condemns Gbajabiamila For Presenting One-Page 2020 Budget Proposal

Lanre Gbajabiamila, the Director-General of the National Lottery Commission, has broken record for presenting a one-page 2020 budget proposal for the Commission.

Senator Yusuf Yusuf, who heads the Senate Committee on Special Duties, described Gbajabiamila during his presentation on Thursday as the most unserious Director Generals of a strategic agency of government which is expected to generate huge revenues for the government.

He also attacked the DG National Lottery Commission for not knowing how to prepare a budget of agency of government.

“You mean, you sent a one-page budget to us? This is unacceptable. This is not how to prepare a budget and you are not serious for not knowing how to do this”, Yusuf Yusuf said.

Gbajabiamila, while speaking on the submission of the budget noted that the revenue of the National Lottery Commission had increased from N500 million to N1.5 billion annually.

He further stated that the commission is ready to grow the revenue if some challenges of the agency were addressed.

Gbajabiamila added that the Commission by its own law was supposed to remit 20% to the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF).

The former governor of Borno state, Senator Ibrahim Kashim Shettima, who is a member of the committee asked if the Commission was truthful with remitting to the Trust Fund as required.

Gbajabiamila, however, explained how he remitted N250 million instead of N1.4 billion, a situation that didn’t go well with Senators who tasked him to recover all government revenues, saying that they wouldn’t tolerate the loss of revenues in this present administration.