Solomon Dalung, the former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, says members of the National Assembly asked him for a ₦200 million bribe during his first budget defence when Muhammadu Buhari was president.
Dalung made this claim in a statement looking back on his time in office. He said it was one of his first experiences with what he described as deep-rooted corruption in Nigeria’s public institutions.
The former minister said the request came soon after he presented the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development’s budget proposal to lawmakers.
He said committee members asked him for ₦200 million, even though the ministry’s approved budget did not include any money for such a payment.
“I looked through the budget documents before me and replied that I had not seen any budget line titled ‘bribe.’
“I told the committee that since no such provision existed in the ministry’s appropriation, I had no idea where they expected me to obtain ₦200m,” Dalung said.
The former minister alleged that his response abruptly ended his participation in the meeting.
According to him, the lawmakers asked him to leave and indicated that they would continue discussions with the ministry’s Permanent Secretary.
“They simply told me, ‘Okay, Mr Minister, you are excused. We will take it up with the Permanent Secretary,’” he recalled.
Dalung also said that after the incident, he was much less involved in later budget defence sessions.
He explained that after that, he was only asked to summarise the ministry’s budget proposals before being asked to leave the sessions.
He said that lawmakers and senior ministry officials would then continue detailed discussions in private.
The former minister said he later found out that this practice was not limited to the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
He said that some ministers, particularly those close to the Presidency, often agreed to such requests so their budget proposals would be approved without problems.
Dalung said that in some cases, legislative oversight has become a means for people to enrich themselves rather than ensuring government accountability.
He explained that when oversight duties are affected by illegal financial interests, transparency and accountability in public administration suffer.
He believes these actions lead to the misuse of public resources, weaken good governance, and reduce people’s trust in government institutions.
The former minister also said that many corruption scandals in ministries, departments, and agencies have continued because some oversight bodies have reportedly been compromised.