•Omisore berates Nigerians over budget padding insinuations
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives has said it would amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) to increase more citizen participation in the budgeting process.
Speaker Tajudeen Abbas stated this while declaring open a one-day “Citizens town hall on the 2024 Appropriation Bill,” yesterday, in Abuja.
He said it was the duty of lawmakers, as representatives of the people, to ensure annual budget reflects the needs of the people. He said the event organised by the House Committee on Appropriation and the Project Coordinating Unit in the Speaker’s Office, with support from the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), underscores the desire of the House to ensure public participation in the budgeting process.
This is as former national secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Iyiola Omisore, dismissed insinuations that the National Assembly usually pad the national budget, noting that it was the constitutional responsibility of the parliament to make appropriation for the country.
Omisore, in his good will message at the event, said: “Nigerians with due respect, most of them are lazy. They get stuck in their brains and start making noise about budget padding. In the last few years, I heard on television stations things like, ‘is there budget padding this year?’ These are ignorant talks and Nigerians celebrate ignorance a lot. From today, let everyone be educated that there is nothing like padding in the Nigerian budgetary system.”
The speaker, while tasking the executive on the need to the citizens more involved in the budgeting process, said this is necessary against the backdrop of diminishing trust on government institutions.
Abbas, who noted that the distrust is attributable to role of political elite and bureaucrats in the budgeting process, charged ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) to publish their annual budget, as well as the implementation reports, regularly on their websites, as a way of increasing citizen participation in the appropriation process.
“The relevance of this interface is best understood within the larger context of diminished public trust in government institutions in Nigeria and all over Africa.
“The Afro barometer study across 36 African countries in 2014/2015 on the theme, ‘Do trustworthy institutions matter’, found that people express more trust in informal institutions such as religious and traditional leaders than in the formal executive agencies of the state.
“Public trust in parliaments and electoral institutions was lowest across 36 countries. Similarly, the Open Government Partnership found that Nigeria provides ‘few’ opportunities for the public to engage in the budget process. In 2017, it ranked Nigeria 13 out of 100 points in public participation.
“This poor ranking was due to the dominant role played by the political elite and government bureaucrats in the budgeting process. While some progress has been made since 2017, many traditional challenges remain. The most notable is the absence of functional government mechanisms that show how citizen input informs the budget-making process.
“However, greater citizen engagement requires action not just by the legislature but more so by the executive. The Nigeria National Action Plan (2017-2019) under the Open Government Partnership identified the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning as the lead institution, with other government organs and agencies and the civil society as support institutions. This places the burden for improving public participation in the budget largely on the executive.
“Some of the ways to achieve this include regular publishing of MDAs budgets and quarterly and annual budget implementation reports on their websites, annual publishing of a comprehensive citizen’s guide to the budget, conduct of annual citizen’s satisfaction survey and timely publication and dissemination of all key budget documents to facilitate citizens’ participation.
“On our part, the House will review the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 to strengthen existing provisions to improve access to information and public consultation during all phases of the budget cycle. Specifically, we will amend the FRA to require and define public participation explicitly.
“As representatives of the people, it is our duty to ensure the annual appropriation reflects the needs and aspirations of every Nigerian citizen. We are acutely aware that so many Nigerians are grappling with the challenges of soaring inflation. In August 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 25.80 per cent relative to the July 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 24.08 per cent.
“The food inflation rate was 29.34 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 6.22 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in August 2022. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics also shows that transportation costs have soared due to the hike in the pump price of premium motor spirit.”
On his part, PLAC Executive Director, Clement Nwankwo, said: “Part of the problems in our national budgets have been the issues of wastage year in, year out. So, our budget should address wastage and focus on development, taking out what is not necessary. If you look at our budget, there are repeat of items every year and these are items that are either luxuries rather than items that address development issues that Nigerians are concern about.
“We do hope your leadership will turn budget lines to development, address unemployment and failure of budgeting to address poverty.
Let nobody underestimate the nature of poverty and the expectation that citizens have that this government will begin to address these issues.”