Senate Seeks Review of Special Duties Ministry’s 2026 Budget Over Omission National Honours
Onwe Wisdom, Pan Afric Reporters
The Senate Committee on Special Duties has rejected the 2026 budget proposal of the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, describing the allocation as embarrassingly unworthy of a ministry clothed with national spread and strategic importance.
The decision followed a tense budget defence session chaired by Senator Kaka Shehu Lawan, of Borno Central, during which lawmakers expressed palpable outrage over the exclusion of funds for National Honours despite presidential approval for a new batch of awardees.
Minister Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo had barely concluded his presentation when senators pounced, interrogating the yawning disparity between the ministry’s expansive mandate and its meagre capital
releases.
Distinguished Senator Abdul Ningi in expression of dissatisfaction, said he pitied the minister for abandoning a legislative career to oversee what he termed a ministry being systematically suffocated by bureaucrats.
“Mr. Chairman, here in the legislature, special duty is a highly ranked committee in the National Assembly and I’m sure the Minister understands what I’m saying. But here we have a Federal Ministry of Special Duties that in 2025, its total budget expenditure is 5.2 billion Naira And amount released for the entire 2025 is 1.8 billion Naira.
“Now, the question is, in this ministry, only met to pay salary? Don’t they have a job to do? Why should a ministry as important as special duties be asked to stay away? And that’s my understanding. I’m sorry to say that bureaucracy in the Ministry of Special Duty has been used as a camouflage. Not your fault”, Ningi said.
He drew laughter when he remarked that local government counsellors in his constituency commanded larger annual budgets than a federal ministry, adding that he had personally commissioned projects worth over N17 billion for a single council chairman in Delta State.
The committee chairman demanded to know whether the Federal Executive Council regarded special duties as a national necessity or a mere appendage, citing the N5.2 billion appropriated for 2025 from which only N1.8 billion was eventually released.
However, the most stinging rebuke came from Senator Onawo, who frowned at the paltry allocation for National Honours, a core statutory mandate of the ministry. He insisted it was unconscionable that deserving Nigerians could not be decorated simply because there was no money to print medals.
The minister confirmed the challenge, explaining that the ministry had no funds to produce the honours and accordingly sought the Senate’s intervention. Lawmakers were further incensed to learn that of the N240 million released for capital expenditure in 2025, the ministry recorded nil on expenditure, nil on balance, and nil on execution.
The committee ruled that the omission of the presidential list of awardees from the 2026 budget rendered the proposal incomplete and therefore unacceptable.
Senator Kaka directed the minister to return to the Budget Office of the Federation and ensure the National Honours allocation was properly reflected, warning that failure to comply by Monday would result in the Budget Office being summoned to appear before the Senate under threat of constitutional powers.
