Imo State Budget 2009: beyond naira and kobo (I)

While delivering the 2009 at the chambers of the Imo State House of Assembly on the 5th of December 2008 Governor Ikedi Ohakim had said “Mr. Speaker, Honorable members of the House, in the last one year, the Legislature and the executive have worked in harmony to give effect to the New Face of Imo Agenda. The Legislature and the Executive have found common ground in the service of our people. The Legislature and the Executive have demonstrated an unshakable determination to change the face of politics in our state. This has confounded many, especially our detractors. But I am not surprised by your tenacity. After all, the New Face of Imo agenda was crafted together with most of you here. In all we do, we have carried the Assembly along as major stakeholders. That notwithstanding, Mr. Speaker, Honorable members, I must sincerely thank you for the support you have been giving to this Administration since you were inaugurated”.

He continued………….”In the last one year and half, we have executed several socio-economic projects which have led to the achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals, consistent with our 14-point agenda as well as the President’s 7-point agenda. On 15 November 2008, we launched the Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency (IRROMA), a unique revolution in rural development. The second phase of Clean and Green Initiative was also launched that day. To curb the incidence of kidnapping and other criminal activities in the State, 90 new operational vehicles were added to the fleet of Operation Festival in addition to other security equipment. Notwithstanding the activities of some disgruntled politicians who hired criminals to destabilize the state, we have been able to reduce criminal activities in our State. Statistics show that Imo State has the least crime rate in the Federation”

While I do not intend to dwell on contextual issues on some of the inherent claims on the foregoing extracts, I wish to stress straight away that most of these claims have had no impact whatsoever on the people from which the Governor and his friends in the house claim legitimacy. I wish therefore to remind the governor that every kobo spent need to have propositional value on the life of the people if democratic governance is to have meaning to people.

In development work, key activities should as a routine be followed by significant outcomes and then social impacts. Both significant outcomes and social impacts are so important that they are often referred to as Social Returns of Investment. In 2008 Imo scored a zero on this as it has done since 1999. I am afraid that inherent extant weaknesses in the 2009 budget create a worse scenario.

For ease of understanding, key activities for example may consist of the use of say One million naira to construct may be 10 water schemes. The significant outcomes of such a project may be calculated through community participation to mean a total of about 100,000 households accessing 100 liters of water per day over a period of say 12 months from the scheme; while the social impact, for example; consists of the level of, and spirit of community participation cultivated, the reduction in recorded cases of water borne diseases and may be the total number of healthy children and households resulting there from.

Claims that the Ohakim led government has executed several socio-economic projects which have led to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the past 18 months are wild and lack empirical leverage. We need Governor Ohakim to give us a piecemeal breakdown of the MDG targets so far achieved. Despite the deployment of 90 new operational vehicles to the fleet of operation festival, crime waves still persist. Claims that Imo rates lower in crime than other states is extraneous; the issue should rather be on the relationship of money spent to the outcomes. Does the outcome match the money spent?  We are also awaiting the impact of the highly exulted Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency (IRROMA), the so called revolution in rural development.

It is my prayer that the N134, 702,905,630 budget entitled ‘Budget of Reality’ as proposed for the 2009 fiscal year becomes a budget to somewhere. The budget as presented is higher than the 2008 budget by N43, 792,040,022 or 48%. While I commend the recurrent revenue source, the recurrent expenditure outlay gives me worry. I am rattled that overhead cost constitutes 14% of the total recurrent expenditure while the general administration cost for capital projects takes a huge 35%.

The argument supporting the ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure put at 66:34 in 1999 as against 60.6:39.4 in 1998 is untenable as far as the awards of contracts and motives for doing so remain parochial. It is contradictory for the governor to insist on right-sizing in the public service and belt tightening yet retaining a generous budget for overhead and general administration of capital projects. We need not look far to see that these are potential loopholes for government funds. Belt tightening should traditional start with an overhead that is at most less than 10% and general administration that is less than 25% of their budgetary subheads.

In view of the analysis so far, I am compelled to emphasize that thinking big is great provided that such dreams are tailored in accordance with available but limited resources. Within the past 18months we have been inundated by creative terms and phrases that connote various projects; both intended and actual. However I am afraid that most of these are simply utopian and merely being floated by impulse without strong feasibility studies that could possibly guarantee their eventual sustainability when set up. The N100m equity investment in Air mid-west limited is one of such. It is utterly fraudulent and would definitely not thrive if it eventually takes off. I say so because government at this level need not meddle into aviation as the governor has done. I have no fear whatsoever that the next 12 and 24 months will prove me right on this. Also, the proposed Imo wonder lake resort is another white elephant. It would fail!

In making this grim prognosis, I make bold to insist that despite the number of MOU’s signed, amount of money budgeted or spent and international travels made, that these projects together with those of the multi-lane Imo State Inter-connectivity freeway project (Imo free way), the solar energy and bus assembly plant, the Naze international electronic, electrical and automobile market (INTEEMARK) project, the reclamation of Nworie River, the siting of ceramic, clay and cement industries as well as independent power plant etc would be difficult to achieved due simply to the manner of their conceptualization.

In arriving at these conclusions, I would repeat what I have often said, both in my town hall speeches and in my regular media articles as a sustainable development expert that development budgets at whatever level must be participatory. A budget formulation process where technocrats forecast the development needs and priorities of the people without input from them is mere wishful thing and certainly, often fails. It is simply anachronistic to still keep to those old ways of pursuing development that have led us to nowhere.

Budgets that determine our lives and livelihood in Imo as well as at the federal level should no longer be abandoned with technocrats or the governor and president and their helmsmen. This is the change we must effect in this new era. This is so because there is little doubt that this ugly situation is responsible for the prevailing poverty and under- development prevailing in our communities. Corrupt officials who currently benefit from the current budgetary process may not like the desired change. 

The 2009 Imo budgets from all indices suffer from this persisting affliction. A number of issues in the budget showcase this.

To be continued next week.

 

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Adams Oshiomhole: To God be the glory!

By

Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji

As a Roman Catholic I reckon with the words of Saint Justin Martyr that “the greatest grace God can give someone is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers- and then sustain him with his grace so he may endure to the end and be saved”.

Writing for the Punch Newspaper from Benin City, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei had posited that “Perhaps, the only consolation for Oshiomhole and his supporters was that the PDP became devastated by a costly intra-party dispute which painted Osunbor as a man leading an army of grumbling soldiers into a crucial war. But the situation in Edo would not allow the victory of Don Quixote charging at the Wind mills. Like a tragic hero, he failed to forge a united front within the PDP and exploit the vast influence of the party in pursuing his desire to cling onto power”

That, no doubt may be true and also contributory to the Oshiomhole victory, but one thing was very clear in the titanic battle that Oshiomhole passed through; he is not a money bag and never pretended to be one; and as a result never had the funds to either influence justice or exploit anything to his favour. But those who had money, also had disunity and were further disappointed to contend with a courageous and incorrigible judiciary. For Adams it was abundance of goodwill, charisma and intelligence; which of course all the money in the central bank of Nigeria cannot buy; but which are very necessary to survive hard and most difficult times. These I believe were the grace accorded him by God (according to Saint Justin Martyr) to enable him to clinch the glory that is today not only his’ but the joy of all lovers of justice and true democracy all over the country.

Nothing could better allude to this fact than Oshiomohle’s comments that “ I am like a little fish in an ocean in which you have big, big sharks which have been feeding on the little fishes. They thought I was one of those they would easily swallow. But so far, God has helped me that these sharks are unable to find me. The more they open their mouth; they just see every other thing except me. I believe God is at work”.

No matter your side of the divide, one thing remains sacrosanct; and that is the fact that we all suffer bad governance irrespective of where we come from or our beliefs. The fruits of good governance or what it should be holds constant across all barriers be it race, region, religion and class etc.

These were to me the aspirations I saw on the faces of the hundreds of thousands of people who thronged to the streets to celebrate the victory of Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole last Tuesday, 11^th November 2008 when the court delivered justice.

Prior to this time, Oshiomhole had in an interview said…….” I am not. I can’t be jittery. Even during the electioneering, I was not jittery, because we were convinced that the people were on our side. After the rigging and the wrongful declaration of Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor (the ousted Edo State governor), we expressed our anger. We put over a million people on the streets and thereafter, we agreed to submit to the judicial process. We have confidence that the judiciary will do justice and it has done justice. They (Osunbor) have now appealed (against it), and we are praying and trusting that we have a compelling case, which even at the level of the Court of Appeal will be in our favour”.

It was American President-elect Barack Obama who in the prologue of his book ‘The audacity of Hope’, said “Every man is trying to either live up to his father’s expectations or make up for his father’s mistakes”. For Oshiomhole, either case could hold true because he had a dream that was propelled by a burning desire to make a statement of service to the people of his state based on perennial flaws of poor governance over the years. According to him “If we do not fight that battle, our Children will travel through this road again and they will blame us. I am very happy that God is using some of us as small as we have been wrestling with godfathers and their products. We have dealt with them and they would never recover again. By the grace of God, we will chase them out of government house”.

His unimpeachable pedigree as an accomplished labor leader who devoted his tenure as the President of the Nigeria Labor Congress to the service of an endangered Nigerian citizenry underscored the streak of getting it right and making governance a desired service rather than oppression.

As the president of the NLC, even The Punch Newspaper, in one of its editorials, made a commentary on his person captioned ‘Adamant Adams.’ He was called the unofficial leader of the opposition. That is opposition to the Federal Government. In a civilized setting, the man who is in the opposition, when the government falls, the opposition takes over. Nobody is better prepared to take over governance than those who have engaged those in government over the past nine years.

Adams Oshiomhole had been privileged to be at the helm of that effort. So, there is nothing closer. In any case, the strength of the massive support he enjoys in the state is informed by two things. First, by his own analysis of the challenges, Edo people realized that he knew what the problem was, so he had a very credible message. And in addition to that, the messenger is also credible - and that is Adams Oshiomhole himself.

He has no illusions about the great expectations of the people and in his own words had said “ I know that most Nigerians will look at Edo State, if I am there, to say, let’s see what difference he is going to make. I am very conscious of that. I am also very conscious of the fact that I represent a particular tendency. And therefore, what is at stake is not just my name, but the entire tendency, so we cannot afford to fail. People will look up to Edo as a model. And the media, I know, will be particularly critical in evaluating what we are going to do. That was why when some people told me to go for the presidency, I said, ‘no, I will go for the governorship.’ Because it is about where I believe, everything considered, I can make an impact. So, we are anxious, we are ready and I know the Edo people can’t wait to have us in”.

In congratulating Oshiomhole, I also congratulate his amiable wife and children for persevering this far. I have no illusion about what it must have cost this man of modest means to overcome the devastating intrigues and troubles of achieving the ultimate political victory from the courts. It is a great relief that after 19 months of a niggling wait that Edo State now finally have Oshiomhole in as their governor.

To God be the glory!

 

 

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3.2

Yar’Adua’s Son-in-law affirmed Governor while Shagari bites dust.

By Ashimole Felix /Abuja.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the appeal of Governor Saidu Usman Dakingari, affirming him as the governor of Kebbi State. At the election tribunal, the election was nullified and the tribunal ordered  fresh election. In today’s ruling, one of the judges sitting at appeal, dissented from the lead judgment and opined that that the appeal ought to be dismissed as it lacks merit.

Meanwhile the Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna nullified the election of Governor Aliyu Wammako and his running mate Muktar Shagari, ruling that the governor was not a duly registered member of the PDP as at the time he stood election.  The court further ordered that the Speaker of the Sokoto House of Assembly takes over governancy till INEC can conduct a fresh election which shall be contested only by the candidates who contested the April election.

The election tribunal sitting in Sokoto had earlier upheld the election and the PDP candidate Muhammadu Maigari appealed, praying the court that he is the authentic PDP candidate.

It will be recalled that Aliyu Wammako was the ANPP guber candidate and few weeks to the April 14 election, defected to PDP and supplanted the PDP candidate Muktar Shagari into a running mate.

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2.5