Success Nwogu writes that opposition parties are picking holes in the 2013 budget proposal presented by the Kwara State Government

The N94.4bn budget proposal by Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, for the 2013 fiscal year, has pitted the state government against opposition parties in the state. The major opposition parties are the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change.

The budget, which was tagged ‘Sustained Prosperity,’ represents a 10 per cent increase over the N85.1bn budget proposal for 2012. Ahmed presented the Appropriation Bill to the Kwara State House of Assembly on December 20, 2012.

A breakdown of the budget shows a total recurrent revenue projection of N58.1bn and recurrent expenditure projection of N51bn.

It also has a total recurrent surplus of N6.3bn with a total capital receipt of N42.6bn and capital expenditure of N42.6bn.

The allocations to the sectors show that roads continue to receive priority in capital expenditure with N7.9bn, closely followed by Education and the Human Capital Development Ministry with N7.6bn: tertiary education, science and technology and agriculture development were allocated N4.3bn.

The health sector was given N3.3bn; capital expenditure on water supply (N1.9bn), Sport and Youth Development (N1.4bn), Energy Sector (N1.2bn), Environment and Forestry got N799m, Information and Communication (N421m), Housing and Urban Development (N249m), Commerce and Cooperatives (N181m), while Social Welfare, Culture and Tourism got N110m.

During the presentation, Ahmed stated that the budget was designed to boost infrastructure, accelerate agro-based wealth creation, create jobs and sustain the state’s development. He added that it was aimed at reducing the state’s dependence on federally-allocated revenue and attracting foreign and domestic investments into the state.

He said, “The 2013 budget is underpinned by the following objectives which reflect government’s prudent economic policies in an uncertain global economic environment: Prudent management of available resources for sustained economic development and growth; implementation of viable initiatives capable of generating employment, wealth creation and fresh investments.

“They also include intensification of internal revenue drive and the improvement in the efficiency of revenue collection to ensure less dependence on the federation account; and execution of infrastructural projects, especially those in the priority areas of agriculture, health, education, water supply, energy and road development.”

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Razak Atunwa, during an interview with journalists after the presentation, said the budget was presented with ‘gusto and accuracy.’ He added that the house would accord the budget an accelerated and thorough deliberation.

But the state CPC chairman, Alhaji Buhari Suleiman, faulted the budget. He said there was nothing ‘prosperous’ about it, alleging that the state government was not addressing issues of development and welfare of the residents.

He said, “The word ‘prosperity’ is a huge word that the government of Ahmed has continued to use to describe its aspirations. But is there anything prosperous about the 2012 and 2013 budgets of the state? The CPC makes bold to say No!

“From all indications, instead of the government to use the budgets meaningfully to develop the needs of the people, change its strategic focus in the manner that will enable it to increase the internally generated revenue and reduce its dependence on federal allocation, increase capital investment in social and physical infrastructure and create the conditions for the diversification of the economy, it has reduced the entire budget process to an annual ritual for the PDP-led government to slice the fiscal pie into various expenditure sub-heads that often fail to improve the welfare of the state.

“The 2013 appropriation bill is not only short on details, it is ‘defective’ in organisation. For example, the governor captioned a sub-head as ‘Other Sectors’ with a whopping allocation of N8.4bn.

“For crying out loud, what constitutes the nebulous ‘other sectors’? What could be so clandestine in the strange sub-head that the public does not deserve to know, especially in this era where further details about the budget are never published for the rest of the year for public scrutiny?” Suleiman asked.

He stated that from the face of the budget, the recurrent expenditure was almost 60 per cent of the total estimate. According to him, this kind of projection absolutely falls short of the ideal budgetary requirement for a rural state like Kwara. He observed that the United Nations Development Programme requires that a minimum of 70 per cent of the budget be reserved for capital expenditure of developing African states like Kwara in order to achieve accelerated and sustainable growth.

He wondered how the state hopes to achieve this with a budgetary outlook where the IGR, according to him, is not even enough to offset its overhead cost let alone personnel cost with a combined strength of over N25bn.

“To us at the CPC, these are all symptoms of wasteful spending, wrongful priorities and utter lack of a clear-cut developmental vision and plans for the state. If the government cares to know, the feeling on the street is that of despair and regret,” he said.

Suleiman advised that since the state is not fiscally self-sufficient, holistic efforts need to be made towards slimming down the size and cost of governance.

He urged Ahmed to diversify the revenue base of the state instead of relying mainly on federal allocation.

He added that the governor should evolve a viable, sustainable and aggressive revenue drive that will be beneficial both to the government and especially the governed. 

He said, “The state government should do away with those gigantic projects that gulp huge sums of money without commensurate revenue flows to the purse of the state or of any benefit to the masses. The state should aspire to make all MDAs significant revenue generating centres.

“With this, the CPC believes that posterity will remember Ahmed as either a governor that came and ran an ‘owambe’ government and left without a trace or a governor that charted an enviable course for his people.”

Also, the Kwara ACN chairman, Mr. Kayode Olawepo, says there is really nothing inspiring about the budget.

He argues that budgets have become an annual ritual observed only in breach. He claims that in some states, the governors announce the percentage of implementation of their previous budgets. According to him, this is not the case with Kwara, where Ahmed only allegedly presents ‘budget speech’ just for the sake of doing so.

He said, “Go through the 2012 budget and see what was done against what was budgeted for. The so-called International Vocational Centre was heavily budgeted for but all you have there today is a foundation laid since mid-2012. There are many instances like that.

“Perhaps nothing exposes the PDP government than the fact that the amount budgeted for recurrent expenditure (N51bn) far exceeds the total money going for capital projects (N42.6bn). That is a gap of N8.4bn. That is not the case in other states where leaders, despite dwindling resources, understand the challenge of socio-economic and human capital development.

“This, weighed against the fact that Kwara lags far behind among its peers and even younger states in terms of socio-economic infrastructure and human resources, exposes the shallowness of the PDP administration in Kwara State.”

He alleges that the state government is interested only in running a ‘patronage system which thrives on rent-seeking and mass impoverishment of the population, while enriching a tiny clique of the political class.’

But the state PDP Secretary, Mr. Yemi Afolanya, says the CPC and ACN are just expressing their opinions, adding that the beauty of democracy is that opinions of others should be expressed.

He states that PDP has been ruling the state well and has been delivering the dividends of democracy to the people.

He says the 2013 budget proposal addressed the welfare concerns of the people, as well as their developmental and infrastructural needs.

Afolayan said, “The government has been providing infrastructure and ensuring development such as health facilities, educational facilities, water supply, electricity and roads. These are the welfare packages for the people. These are the things that you see every day in Kwara.

“The government is not lining the pockets of a few individuals. If ACN and CPC have values to add, they should come and join hands with us in moving Kwara State forward.”

He urged the opposition to be patient and observe the debate of the budget by the state assembly, saying that would give them the controversial opportunity to know what the ‘other sectors,’ is all about.