This director-general presents history’s dumbest budget to Senate

Director General of the National Lottery Commission, Lanre Gbajabiamila, presented a one-pager of a 2020 budget to the Senate on Thursday–and all hell was let loose on him in the hallowed chamber.

Members of the Senate committee on special duties were particularly angry.

Chairman Sen. Yusuf Yusuf described Gbajbiamila as “one of the most unserious director generals of a strategic agency of government”, that was supposed to generate huge revenues for government.

True, Gbajabiamila was all thumbs as he couldn’t explain how to prepare a budget amidst a barrage of questions the senators hurled at him..

“You mean, you sent one page budget to us? This is unacceptable. This is not how to prepare budget and you are not serious for not knowing how to do this”, Yusuf said.

But the D-G still managed to explain how the revenue of the National Lottery Commission increased from N500 million to N1.5 billion annually, adding that they were ready to grow the revenue if some challenges of the agency were addressed.

According to him, the commission by its own law was supposed to remit 20% to the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF).

Senator Ibrahim Kashim Shettima, member and former governor of Borno, asked if the Commission was religiously remitting to the Trust Fund as required.

Gbajabiamila’s answer even drew more ire from the lawmakers.

The commission under him has only remitted N250 million instead of N1.4 billion.

The senators had to dru it into his brain why he has to recover all government revenues, saying that they wouldn’t tolerate loss of revenues in this present administration.

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