President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has urged parliamentary journalists to deepen their understanding of legislative processes and help protect Nigeria’s budget by exposing waste and promoting accountability.
Speaking through Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, at the 2026 Senate Press Corps Capacity-Building Workshop in Abuja on Monday, Akpabio said balanced and accurate budget reporting would strengthen public confidence in the appropriation process.
He urged journalists covering the National Assembly to understand how budgets are prepared, debated and approved so they could report legislative activities more accurately.
Akpabio also encouraged the media to closely monitor budget implementation, expose waste and ensure public funds are properly used.
The workshop, themed “Leveraging Legislative Oversight and Media Collaboration to Safeguard the National Budget from Unlawful Insertions,” focused on improving cooperation between lawmakers and journalists in promoting transparency.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said Nigerians should be properly informed about why projects appear in the budget and warned against misleading reports on budget line items.
He added that artificial intelligence should support journalists and lawmakers by helping them ask better questions but said it must never replace human judgment, verification and professional safeguards.
Chairman of the Senate Press Corps, Chief Taiye Odewale, said the recent controversy over the alleged N1.3 billion allocation to the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council showed why stronger scrutiny of the budget process was necessary.
Representatives of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and BudgIT also called for greater transparency, early budget submission and stronger oversight to prevent waste and improve public spending.
Speaking on behalf of The Eagle Times Newspaper, Chief Operating Officer Mr Tabuko Kennedy, in his presentation: _”Making the Eagle Eye of the Media Sharper at Yearly Budget Scrutinies”,_ identified overreliance on headline figures and official statements, inadequate understanding of budget data, poor follow-up and failure to compare allocations across years as weaknesses in budget reporting.
He urged journalists to “follow the money” by comparing budget allocations with actual project delivery and verifying projects on the ground.
AI expert Ms Adeola Ademokoya advised journalists to use technology to analyse budget documents but reminded them to always verify information before publication, summarising their responsibility in four words: “read, question, verify and report responsibly.”
The workshop brought together lawmakers, media professionals, civil society organisations and budget experts as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen legislative oversight, improve budget transparency and ensure greater accountability in the management of public resources.
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