Following allegations of budget padding in the 2016
Budget, it has been revealed that President
Muhammadu Buhari sacked 22 top officials out of
the 184 civil servants that were disciplined over the
matter.
The latest information was contained in Buhari's
authorised biography, 'Muhammadu Buhari: The
Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria', written by
Prof. John Paden and presented to the public on
Monday.
According to information provided by the
biography, Buhari viewed the padding as an attempt
to bring down his administration forcing him to
come hard on those involved in the act.
The author wrote, "Buhari himself was frustrated by
earlier padding of the budget by bureaucrats in
some of the ministries.
"This was interpreted by the Buhari team as an
attempt to scuttle the innovations proposed by the
President by inflating their costs.
"When Buhari found out, he was reported to be
angry and ordered a purge of the ministries
involved from the Director-General down.
"Twenty-two top officials were dismissed, including
the budget director. In all, 184 civil servants were
disciplined."
He described the act as an anomaly. He had further
stated that the act of padding the budget was done
by people who did not want his adminstration to
succeed and called it a disappointing and
embarrassing act.
In February, Buhari had while addressing the
Nigerian community in Saudi Arabia, vowed that all
those involved in the padding of the 2016 national
budget, which led to the discrepancies in the
document, would face severe punishment.
Buhari had added, "The culprits will not go
unpunished. I have been a military governor,
petroleum minister, military Head of State and
headed the Petroleum Trust Fund.
"Never had I heard the words budget padding. Our
Minister of Budget and National Planning did a
great job with his team.
"The minister became almost half his size during the
time, working night and day to get the budget ready,
only for some people to pad it.
"What he gave us was not what was finally being
debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing.
We will not allow those who did it to go
unpunished."
The president has said he will continue to fight
corruption and all those who misuse public funds
meant for the development of the people.