May 5, 2025
NIGERIA NEWS HEADLINE: “HOW 800 MILLION NAIRA PROJECT COST WAS INFLATED TO 2.7 BILLION NAIRA”
The above quote was a recent newspaper headline in Nigeria. But the topic itself is an old, old, old criminal tradition in the country. Hardly any contract, especially government contract or business, happens in the country without budget padding, period!!! It is a CRIMINAL TRADITION, which happens OPENLY with IMPUNITY and without qualms.
If you do any business with the presidency of Nigeria, you MUST pad the budget. The president and his people insist that you must pad the budget so that they can get their personal cuts from the public funds. Likewise, the budget for any business with the governor of any state in Nigeria MUST be padded so that the governor and his people get their own cut of the public funds. It happens down to the Local Government Chairmen, and all the way down to the Ward Counselors. The padding in the story of this recent news headline was ONLY about three times the actual cost. Most often, the crooks in power increase the budget by over ten times the actual value of the cost, meeeeeeeen!!!
Oh, by the way, did I forget about the crooks at the nation’s National Assembly? Hell, doggone no!!! They are the evil masters of budget padding in Nigeria. It happens every year with the national budgets. Those crooks must always pad the national budget with extra billions of naira that they steal into their own personal pockets. More than once, I commented on their evil criminality of budget padding. I have links to a couple of my past treatises for you at the end of this treatise. Any of the few decent lawmakers who does not agree with the criminality becomes an enemy of the house. For instance, in 2024, the criminal leadership of the Senate, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio suspended one Senator Abdul Ningi for challenging their padding of that year’s national budget. That’s one of the links that I have for you at the end of this treatise.
Now, I’m gonno end this with my own personal experience. This time, it was beyond budget padding. Like in common other cases, it was a combination of budget padding and outright stealing of the main budget, too. Once upon a trip to Nigeria, I proposed a communication contract to the Federal Ministry of Information. It was approved without much delay. And, of course, my budget was heavily padded to accommodate the “kickback” for the big boys of the ministry.
Now, check this out: When the main budget was to be released, I was hit with a shocking surprise. I was told that the money was to be divided into three parts. One part was for the execution of the contract, while the other two parts were to be shared among the “members of the team.” Mind you, I was to partake in the booty, too. Naturally, I felt very uncomfortable with it.
I will fast forward to the conclusion of my story. That’s the fact that the contract was never executed because I refused to accept the scam. I complained that the sum allocated for the execution of the job was too small for quality production. I said that I was not willing to compromise my professional integrity with a substandard production. I quote the response of the guy in charge of the deal, thus: “Mr. Harry, who cares about your American standards here. This is not America, my friend,” he concluded angrily. He was very angry that my “stupid Americana stubbornness” was costing him a lot of easy money. And yes, my stubbornness did cost them the money and cost me the contract because I did walk away from the contract and returned to the US.
LINK TO THE VLOG (VIDEO) ABOUT SENATOR NINGI’S SUSPENSION FROM THE SENATE FOR CHALLENGING CRIMINAL BUDGET PADDING BY THE SENATE:
https://afro-scope.com/2024/04/08/nigerians-must-rise-over-evil-loot-makers-part-4/
LINK TO ANOTHER STORY OF BUDGET PADDING BY FEDERAL LAWMAKERS OF NIGERIA:
https://afro-scope.com/2024/04/09/national-budget-padding-by-nigerias-federal-lawmakers/
