The controversy surrounding the 2019 elections’ budget yesterday took another dimension, as the Senate queried the figures presented by President Muhammadu Buhari and that of the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu before the Senate.
The discrepancies between the figures presented by President Buhari and the INEC Chairman, were noted by the Senate during the INEC election budget defence.
While the INEC Chairman presented before the Senate Committee on INEC headed by Sen. Suleiman Nazif, a budget of N189, 207,544,893.13 for the 2019 elections, President Buhari had on July 17, 2018, presented N143,512,529,455.00.
Consequently, the Senate committee asked the INEC boss, which of the elections budget should be passed, whether the N189, 207,544,893.13 he presented or the N143,512,529,455.00 presented by President Buhari.
Sen. Nazif, assured the commission that there will be an opportunity by tomorrow for the committee to sit down again to try to see how it could reconcile and come up with one formidable budget.
He said: “It is important for us to note that there are some observations that were raised by distinguished senators in the cause of this budget defence, which are very germane. And these observations are:
“That based on what Mr President sent to the National Assembly, he sent supplementary of N143 billion (for 2018). And what we have here presented by you is N189 billion. So, we will have an opportunity by tomorrow to sit down once again to try to see how we can reconcile and come up with one formidable budget.
“At the same time, there was also an observation that the format being presented for this budget would have to be done again because there is the need for us to present to the Appropriation Committee and we have a format. So, I believe the meeting for tomorrow (today) will give us another opportunity to sit down and discuss. And then we will know how to go about bringing it in such a format that will be accepted by the Appropriations Committee where the recurrent and capital expenditure will be clearly spelt out.
But the INEC Chairman, however, explained that there is no conflict between the President and the commission, adding, “I think this clarification needs to be made because the session here will be reported. INEC requested for N189 billion, the Executive requested for exactly the amount that INEC asked for; only that it has come in two components: 2018 and 2019. So, there is no conflict between what is submitted by the Executive and what is proposed by INEC.”
Earlier in his presentation, the INEC boss read the breakdown of the elections budget to include, election operational cost, N134,427,868,157.50, election technological cost N27,503,970,680.00, election administrative cost, NN22,660,887,887.50 and miscellaneous expenses, N4,614,818,168.13. Total, N189,207,544,893.13.
While printing of ballot papers would cost N31,492,500,000.00, printing of result sheets cost N4,361,920,368.00, procurement of non-sensitive materials would cost N6,125,000,000.00 among others.
Prof. Yakubu, said that as at Saturday, the commission has registered 12.1 million new voters, adding that if the number is added to the 70 million voters registered, “we have over 80 million registered voters…The general elections are just around the corner.”
Asked to explain the huge differences between the 2015 and 2019 budgets, the INEC boss said, “Mr. Chairman, I wish to draw the attention of this Committee to the fact that there is a difference of N69 billion in the budgets of 2015 and 2019.
“In 2015, we had 70 million registered voters. As of last week Saturday, we now have over 80 million registered voters.
“All major activities are pegged against the total number of voters. In 2015, we had only 42 political parties. We now have 91 registered political parties eligible to take part in the 2019 general elections.
“We are hoping that all the political parties will have seamless congresses and primaries. Another issue that we have accounted for, is the processing costs of nominations.
“The cost of logistics is also different in 2019 as opposed to 2015, because the pump price of petrol in 2015, is different from that of 2019. This will also have an impact.
“With the increase of voters, we will have to increase the number of voting points. And with the increase of voting points, we will also have an increase in Ad-Hoc Staff.”
The Senators presented during the budget defence were: Atai Aidoko, James Manager, Mohammed Hassan, Sabi Abdullahi, Ovie Omo Agege, Olusola Adeyeye, Abdullahi Gumel, Gilbert Nnaji, Isah Misau and Senator Suleiman Nazif (Chairman Senate Committee on INEC).
