Former Senator Dino Melaye has raised serious concerns about the alleged skyrocketing cost of governance in the National Assembly, warning that Nigeria is heading towards deeper systemic corruption if urgent reforms are not implemented.
In a strongly worded X (formerly Twitter) post, Melaye compared the current budgetary allocation of the National Assembly to that of his tenure in the 8th Senate, noting that constituency projects per senator were less than ₦200 million at the time.
According to him, a recent confession by a sitting senator from Osun State revealed that lawmakers now take over ₦2 billion each, a situation Melaye described as “courtesy of Tinubu’s administration.”
He pointed out that during the 8th Senate, the National Assembly budget stood at ₦120 billion, while in the 2025 budget, it has surged to over ₦344 billion.
“This is how nations fail. Our budget is overbloated even when I was in NASS, and I shouted loud about it. Increasing the budget is increasing corruption because the parameters, indices, and yardsticks remain the same. Envelope budget system is open fraud,” Melaye declared in his X post.
The former lawmaker further asserted that 90% of corruption in Nigeria stems from procurement fraud, adding that the constant increment of the legislature’s budget compromises the independence of lawmakers.
He emphasized that the cardinal duty of parliamentarians globally is lawmaking, not project execution or contract awards, warning that budget padding and compromise have turned the National Assembly into an appendage of the executive.
Melaye also defended his political record, stating that despite being the most investigated politician with 12 court cases, he has never been linked to corruption, nor invited by EFCC or ICPC for any graft-related case.
“Be educated. The responsibility of a legislator is not contract awarding but ensuring accountability and good governance,” he stressed.
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