CNG explained that such weighty allegations are not only dangerous for the peace and security of Nigeria but also expose Bamidele’s alleged hatred for the North and complete disdain for democratic transparency and accountability.
The North-East chapter of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has described Senator Opeyemi Bamidele’s recent statement as “jingoistic and abhorrent utterances capable of plummeting the remnant of the battered reputation of the Red Chamber”.
Senator Abdul Ningi in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (Hausa Service) on Saturday, alleged that the budget passed by the National Assembly for the 2024 fiscal year was N25tn while the one being implemented by the Presidency was N28.7tn.
Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, however, alleged that Senator Ningi was propagating an impeachment agenda against Senate President Godswill AKpabio, despite the Northern Senators Forum not being in support of it.
Bamidele, representing Ekiti Central, on Tuesday, maintained that what Ningi did was tantamount to a failed civilian coup, adding that he only wanted to use the Northern senators’ forum to push his agenda.
But the North-East chapter of CNG in a statement on Friday, signed by Isah Abubakar Waziri, Zonal Coordinator, said they had lost confidence in the current leadership of the Senate that is mired in “monumentally unprecedented corruption”.
CNG explained that such weighty allegations are not only dangerous for the peace and security of Nigeria but also expose Bamidele’s alleged hatred for the North and complete disdain for democratic transparency and accountability.
It alleged that Bamidele, as a majority leader of the Senate, must have some skeletons in his cupboard with the alleged budget padding for him to have resorted to ethnic-cum-regional comments.
The statement reads in part, "The North-East Chapter of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), observed with keen interest the discussions that ensued in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly as a corollary to the allegations of budget padding in the 2024 Budget by Senator Abdul Ningi.
"Expectedly, the senators debated the issue in the Red Chamber as their tradition as a lawmaking body of the country and as an important institution of democratic governance.
"Unfortunately, we observed with rather a shock, that a ranking senator, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, stooped so low to profiling northern senators and by implication, the northern people for planning to stage what he described as “a civilian coup”. Senator Bamidele descended further to portray northerners as unreliable who are hell-bent on removing Godswill Akpabio as the President of the 10th Senate.
"It is imperative to educate Bamidele that the North he is insulting gave the highest and most decisive number of votes to the incumbent President Bola Tinubu just as the northern senators who constitute the majority facilitated the emergence of Godswill Akpabio as the Senate President.
"For the avoidance of any doubt, it is important to unravel this dangerous rhetoric woven around our differences by a senator through provoking sectional sentimental calculation over and above the priority of collective and cohesive struggle to enshrine accountability and transparency in the Senate.
"Let it be vivid to Bamidele that the Northern lawmakers always make robust legislative engagements irrespective of who is superintending the National Assembly which is why for example Abdulmumini Jibrin challenged Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara and Sen. Ali Ndume confronted Sen. Bukola Saraki with allegations, yet, it was only the issues that were dissected and debated.
"It is necessary to deploy every plausible means to disabuse the ilk of Bamidele from such narrow political conjecture that can only gain currency in a situation that stifles democratic etiquette.
"It is clear, therefore, that Bamidele, as a majority leader of the senate, has some skeletons on his cupboard with the alleged budget padding that was why he resorted to ethnic-cum-regional chauvinism while commenting on the issue that he was talking as a “southerner”; reclining to his parochial and primordial enclave to prevent further exposition of his corruption and that of the senate leadership of which he is a part.
"Thus, we have lost confidence in the current leadership of the senate that is mired in monumentally unprecedented corruption which has never happened in any senate.
“A serving senator, inside the plenary session of the senate, Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, disclosed that some senators were given a staggering 500 million naira while others were allocated 200 million naira in the 2024 Budget. This brazen and despicable abuse of office decimates the remainder of any pretence to abide by constitutional provisions and rules guiding the National Assembly.
"Similarly, a civil society organization, BudgIT, confirmed Senator Ningi’s allegations that N3.7trn could not be accounted for in the 2024 appropriation which Bamidele is depriving Nigerians of knowing the truth or interrogating facts and figures.”