By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
Dear Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Sir,
By way of re-introduction, my name is Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, I am a lawyer qualified in the year 2004.
I write in my capacity as the Secretary of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners-ALDRAP. We are a professional Association of Legislative lawyers who are committed to ensuring compliance with legislation by public office holders. We apply public interest litigation and continuing legal education programmes as our methods to ensure compliance.
For example, last year, our Association-ALDRAP filed a lawsuit at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Abuja Division, to prevent the National Assembly and its Principal Officials from enacting a Bill to increase the age of retirement of the immediate past Clerk to the National Assembly from 60 to 65 years of age. Due to our litigation, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria refused to assent to the said Bill.
You can confirm my credentials from the former Attorney-General of Oyo State, the same learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) that initially introduced me to your good self.
You can also confirm from the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC), who happens to be my former classmate at the Nigerian Law School Class of 2004 (he is copied in this letter).
Before I begin, let me disclose and declare that I have no personal interests in this matter.
To the contrary it is overriding public interest that drives this advocacy.
Since October 2024, I have been engaged as an European Union funded legal consultant for legislative drafting training lawyers of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and the Law Reform Commission of the Kingdom of Lesotho. So I stand to gain no personal benefits.
On behalf of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners- ALDRAP, I write to respectfully inform you to perform your duty to prosecute the perpetrators of the budget padding of ₦6.9 trillion into the 2025 budget. The said duty is imposed upon your good self under Section 58 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (amended in 2023).
I also write to respectfully request the Chairman of the ICPC to prosecute the perpetrators of the same budget padding, which is a violation of Section 19 of the ICPC Act, 2000.
Respectfully, AGF, Sir, please kindly find time to read through the Report that contains a list of the 11,112 items that were inserted into the said 2025 which amounts to a total of ₦6.93trillion. This Report is available on the website of BudgIT: https://budgit.org/post_publications/2025-budget-insertions-by-the-national-assembly/
Although budget padding which is the illegal insertion of amounts into the annual budget or Appropriation legislation is not defined inside any legislation.
Both the intentions and actions of the officials that perpetuate budget padding constitutes a crime contrary to Section 19 of the ICPC Act, 2000 and Section 58 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 which empowers the occupant of the Office of the AGF to prosecute offenders.
Respectfully, AGF Sir, Sections 12 and 86 of the Public Procurement Act was recently amended in the year 2023 to provide for a Register of Suppliers as well as digitalisation of all public procurement and linking it to the sustainable development goals of Nigeria, therefore, the act of budget padding is itself constitutes a violation of these amended provisions!!!
By looking at the said BudgIT Report on the items that were padded into the 2025 budget, the names of the officials who were responsible can be identified.
To conclude, we respectfully request your reference to the annual budget law of Brazil, from which we can learn lessons (considering that the said annual budget law of Brazil clearly identifies the author of the annual budget law so that such an official can be held responsible for any insertion or budget padding). It is available online at: https://www.congressonacional.leg.br/materias/pesquisa/-/materia/159659
We can also provide your good self the contact details of Prof. Luis Fernando Machado, a professor of law and official of the Legislative Institute of Brazil, who has written a seminal paper on how Nigeria can avoid the dangers of budget padding in the process of enactment of the annual budget law. His paper is published in the 2024 edition of the International Journal of Legislative Drafting and Law Reform. Available online at the website of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CANLii).
TAKE NOTICE THAT IN THE EVENT THAT YOU FAIL OR REFUSE TO TAKE THE NECESSARY ACTION, WE SHALL INITIATE A LAWSUIT FOR AN ORDER OF MANDAMUS TO COMPEL YOUR COMPLIANCE.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
22nd May 2025.
cc: Hon. Chairman, ICPC, Abuja, FCT.
