By Jane Salihu
The Senate Press Corps has urged journalists covering the National Assembly to move beyond reporting budget figures and debates and develop the capacity to trace public funds from appropriation to actual expenditure.
Chairman of the Corps, Taiye Odewale, made the call on Monday in Abuja at a capacity-building workshop organised for journalists covering the Senate, saying closer media scrutiny of the budget process could help expose questionable entries before they translate into public expenditure.
Odewale said the controversy surrounding the N1.3 billion provision for the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) in the 2026 Appropriation Act demonstrated the importance of independently checking how budgetary provisions emerge and where they originate.
The 2026 Appropriation Act contains a provision of N1.302 billion for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.
However, the controversy over the provision has produced differing explanations from government institutions. While the Budget Office said in July that it had processed the provision based on official documentation presented to it, the Presidency disputed the existence of the council. The Budget Office subsequently said none of the appropriated funds had been released or spent because the required conditions for expenditure were not fulfilled.
Against this background, Odewale said the media should work alongside the constitutional oversight functions of the National Assembly to establish how controversial budget entries get into the appropriation process and whether they subsequently receive financial clearance.
He said journalists covering the legislature must acquire the technical knowledge required to examine budget proposals, amendments and appropriation documents rather than relying solely on official explanations after controversies emerge.
The workshop, themed “Leveraging Legislative Oversight and Media Collaboration to Safeguard the National Budget from Unlawful Insertions,” therefore focused on strengthening journalists’ capacity to identify and investigate questionable budgetary provisions.
Odewale said the Senate Press Corps’ own investigation into the PFIPC controversy showed the value of specialised legislative reporting, adding that the Corps would continue to promote professional scrutiny of the budget process.
“We believe that the presentations by our eminent and highly respected resource persons will enrich us with the required knowledge and ways of detecting such irregularities,” he said.
He added that effective reporting should not end with the passage of the budget but should extend to tracking implementation, including whether appropriated funds are released, for what purpose and under what legal authority.
The workshop brought together perspectives from the Executive, civil society, budget analysts and the media, with the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu; Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani; Director of BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde; and Publisher of Eagle Times Newspaper, Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, listed among the resource persons.
Odewale said contributions from key National Assembly officials would also help journalists better understand the stages through which the national budget passes, including scrutiny, amendment and passage.
He said the Corps was also incorporating technology into its capacity-building efforts, with a session on artificial intelligence tools expected to expose participants to ways of improving research, efficiency and digital journalism.
He expressed optimism that the workshop would strengthen the ability of Senate correspondents to interrogate budgetary decisions, provide clearer explanations to the public and contribute to greater accountability in the management of public resources.
