By Olugbenga Salami
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has charged parliamentary journalists to act as watchdogs to expose waste and ensure proper utilisation of public funds in the national budget process.
Specifically, he called for balanced reportage to build public confidence and trust in the national budget, urging journalists covering the National Assembly to familiarise themselves with legislative processes and procedures for accurate reporting.
Akpabio, represented by Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, made the call at the Senate Press Corps, SPC 2026 Capacity-Building Workshop in Abuja with the theme: “Leveraging Legislative Oversight and Media Collaboration to Safeguard the National Budget from Unlawful Insertions.”
The Senate President said the media has a critical role in safeguarding the budget from unlawful insertions through rigorous scrutiny.
He commended the Senate Press Corps for initiating the workshop to strengthen collaboration between lawmakers and the media.
Chairman of the Senate Press Corps, Taiye Odewale, said the workshop was prompted by the alleged N1.3billion allocation to the non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC in the 2026 budget.
Odewale said findings by the Corps showed the allocation was not part of the N9.85 trillion added by the National Assembly to the N58.47 trillion executive proposal that produced the N68.32 trillion 2026 budget.
He said the controversy exposed gaps in checks against questionable budget entries and need for stronger legislative-media collaboration.
The chairman added that the workshop also aimed to equip journalists with budget scrutiny skills and AI tools for professional reporting.
In the first paper, Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, CISLAC Executive Director Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said budget provisions must be justified, transparent, properly costed and measurable.
Represented by Ebu Emmanuel, he warned that vague, duplicated or inflated items fuel waste, citing ICPC findings of 4,508 padded projects worth N434.5bn and 66 duplicated projects worth N6.43bn in the 2022 budget.
The CISLAC boss urged lawmakers to scrutinise MDAs’ proposals, verify purpose, location, beneficiaries and expected results, and maintain audit trails from proposal to final budget.
He advised journalists to ask key questions of what changed, why, who justified it, cost, location, beneficiaries and verification of delivery.
