FINDINGS from the 2024 budget have revealed that the Federal Government approved N7.76 billion to cater for 16 capital projects for traditional rulers in Nigeria.
The ICIR analysis showed that the projects are to be implemented by eight federal ministries and departments.
The ministries are Information and Orientation, Agriculture and Food Security, Industry, Trade and Investment, Labour and Employment, Health and Social Welfare, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
Some of the projects are the provision and supply of SUVs and cars for traditional rulers, which will gulp N400 million; training and empowerment of council of traditional rulers for N100 million; and training of traditional rulers on conflict resolution, which takes N50 million.
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Categorising the project by location, three of the projects are for monarchs in Lagos, two projects each for leaders in Katsina and Ogun states, and one project each for monarchs in Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Oyo, Kogi, Plateau and Kaduna states.
In all, there are 13 projects with direct locations, and there are three others without specific locations.
The three projects without specific locations are procuring and distributing official vehicles to selected rulers in the six geopolitical zones for N5 billion and a N40 million allocation to support traditional rulers and chiefs.
Also, N447.09 million was budgeted for the partnership, strategy engagement and field operational support of traditional leaders to transform primary healthcare services.
These findings emerged weeks after the National Assembly was accused of alleged padding of the 2024 budget, which led to the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi.
Analysis by The ICIR explained the allegation by juxtaposing it with the approved budget.
Scary misappropriation in the budget
The ICIR filtered the 2024 budget, focusing on traditional rulers’ allocations.
The findings showed that the N7.76 billion allocation is more than the budget approved for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Nigerian Institute of Sport (NIS). In the 2024 budget, the NFF has N2.05 billion, while the NIS has N1.72 billion.
Also, the N7.76 billion for the monarchs is almost half the total allocation for the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, which has N14.48 billion as budget.
The ICIR compared the projects for which the N7.76 billion was approved with the ministries’ mandates. The findings showed some appropriations might not have been appropriately done.
For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is expected to carry out the provisions and supplies of SUVs and cars to monarchs in the Ikeja Federal Constituency in Lagos State and the unspecified location of N40 million for support of traditional rulers by the same ministry.
Another is the procurement and distribution of vehicles for traditional rulers for N5 billion by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, whose mandate is to implement policies and programmes to attract investment and boost industrialisation.
Also, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is expected to construct and furnish the Takkas traditional ruler’s palace and cultural arena in Plateau State with N100 million.
The ICIR dug deeper, checking the eight ministries and departments’ proposed budget when President Bola Tinubu presented it to the National Assembly. Findings showed that the allocations made to the traditional rulers were not captured anywhere under these ministries in the proposed budget.
This means that the addition of N7.76 billion for monarchs was one of the reasons the proposed budget jumped from N27.5 trillion to N28.7 trillion, signed by the President.
The ICIR published several reports on the proposed 2024 budget.
This organisation also reviewed the approved budgets for previous years to compare the amount allocated for traditional rulers using the same filtering method.
In the 2023 approved budget, N721.31 million was allocated for seven projects across five ministries for monarchs.
Also, in the 2022 approved amended budget, the Federal Government earmarked N326.65 million for three projects, while in the 2021 budget, N607.37 million was for six capital projects for the monarchs.
| Years | Amount | Number of Projects |
| 2024 | N7.22 billion | 16 |
| 2023 | N721.31 million | 7 |
| 2022 | N326.65 million | 3 |
| 2021 | N607.37 million | 6 |
Table showing the capital projects and amounts budgeted for traditional rulers between 2021 and 2024. Source: Budget Office
Who takes care of traditional rulers?
While no constitutional provisions limit the capital projects that could be captured in the budget, the budgetary provisions for traditional rulers are usually captured at the subnational level.
The ICIR observed that most states provide a commission for traditional rulers or transfer the responsibility of traditional leaders’ welfare and related matters to the Local Government Commission.
A legal practitioner, Lukman Raji, who spoke to The ICIR, said it was a misplaced priority for the Federal Government to make provisions for traditional rulers in the budget when the state government budget takes care of it.
He said, “The traditional rulers are not even directly under the state government but under their local government. It is wrong, and it will be a misplaced priority for the Federal Government to jump the bridge by saying they want to take care of traditional rulers without necessarily amending the Constitution for that.”
Also, a senior research & policy analyst for BudgIT, Vahyala Kwaga, posited that it would be very difficult to end the inclusion of vague, frivolous, duplicated items in the federal budget because the scope of powers of the National Assembly over the budget is not clearly defined.
Kwaga said, “The budget proposal itself has not been demonstrated to have come from an analytically and fiscally rigorous process that takes into consideration revenue constraints and long-term plans. It is simply an incremental budget that allows business as usual.”
The ICIR reported how over N512 billion of frivolous items were passed in the 2024 appropriation budget.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at jameskennyogunyale@gmail or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames | LinkedIn: Kehinde Ogunyale