According to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), President Muhammadu Buhari should be sued at the Federal High Court in Abuja for allocating N26 billion in the 2022 presidency budget for local and international travels, meals and refreshments as well as a "sitting allowance," a "welfare package," and an office building.
The group is seeking an order from the court ordering the presidency to reduce the budget and send a supplementary appropriation bill to the National Assembly to reflect the reduction. The case is filed under the number FHC/ABJ/CS/1361/2021.
As part of its submission, SERAP requested that the court order Buhari to publish spending details on the State House Medical Center from the time he assumed office to the present, as well as redirect some of the money spent on travel and meals to improve public healthcare facilities across the country.
"The government will continue to borrow to pay the country's budget until there is a significant reduction in the cost of governance," according to SERAP. In the public's best interests, the government should be restrained from spending excessive amounts of money on these items. Borrowing on an ongoing basis is neither sustainable nor fair to the Nigerian population.
In light of the country's severe economic situation, the lack of funding for education and health, and the escalating level of borrowing by the Federal Government to fund the 2022 budget, the massive spending by the presidency is neither necessary nor in the public's interest," the president wrote.
This administration is bound by constitutional and fiduciary obligations to ensure appropriate budget expenditure, as well as the well-being and prosperity of Nigerians. The planned money should be better spent on improving the access of poor Nigerians to fundamental public goods and services," says the author.
This was followed by the statement, "Any expenditure of public funds should be limited to constitutionally mandated expenditures and public officers' oaths of office, as well as comply with Chapter 2 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution [as amended], which deals with fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy."
"Unless the reliefs sought are granted, the Federal Government will continue to benefit from the violation of the law, and the proposed expenditure of N26 billion would deprive the poorest and most vulnerable people of access to essential public goods and services, as well as burden the next generation," SERAP argues.
"Cutting waste and seemingly superfluous spending would go a long way toward addressing the budget deficit and debt difficulties," according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of SERAP by its attorneys Kolawole Oluwadare and Adelanke Aremo.
Preventing President Buhari from spending the estimated N26 billion on travel and meals will ensure that the government spends the maximum amount of the country's available resources on the rights to basic requirements of the poor and marginalized groups, while also protecting and promoting those rights."
"The projected spending is unsustainable, and it would divert essential funds away from efforts to ensure that everyone has access to high-quality healthcare and education."
"Public officers are only custodians of public records," the statement reads. Nigerians have a right to know how their commonwealth is being used, managed, and administered in a democratic environment.
In fact, according to media estimates, the proposed N26bn for travels, lunches, refreshments, and the presidential wing of the State House Clinic is greater than the proposed allocations for ongoing and new projects in 14 teaching hospitals put together."