‘It Is Not Tinubu’ – Orji Kalu Reveals Those Responsible For Jerking Up 2024 Budget

A former Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not responsible for jerking up the 2024 budget.

Naija News reports that Kalu made this known while speaking with journalists shortly after a Thanksgiving ceremony organized by the Ebonyi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Stanley Okoro Emegha, at Edda.

Kalu said the National Assembly, not Tinubu, should be blamed for the development.

According to him, many expenditures will be made, including the census, which are not captured in the budget.

He said, “I can tell you, it’s not the President that jerked up the budget to N28.2 trillion but the National Assembly, of which I’m a ranking member of the Appropriation Committee.

“We want to do census and the government has spent billions of naira on it, and it was not captured in the budget.

“They brought new figures from the National Population Commission and other relevant bodies and that’s why the budget went up.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not know anything about it. We have been working on the budget and so, it wasn’t from the President. If it is the fault of the President, I will tell you that it is his fault. I have just given you one of the reasons why the budget was jerked up.

“The National Population commission, NPC, has spent so much money on the census, and this census is supposed to be conducted soon but they lack money to do it, and if they don’t do it, Nigeria will be losing two hundred and eighty nine billion. So, we have to put that money in the budget.”