Insulate budgeting from mafias to end vicious corruption cycle

Never had I heard the words budget padding, said President Muhamadou Buhari of Nigeria last month following fraudulent exaggeration of the costs of budgeted items and wholesale injection of questionable line items between when he approved it and when he delivered it.

As Mr Buhari was busy poking past alleged looters of public funds out of their holes, a budget mafia was busy padding his budget with billions of naira, which he knew nothing about.