Governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Ikechi Emenike, has identified low budgeting as the major reason Abia State has been experiencing stunted growth.
He expressed the view while addressing a non-partisan stakeholders forum at Ututu in Arochukwu Local Government Area in continuation of his consultations and mobilisation of like minds to join hands with him to change the sad narrative of Abia.
The development economist said over the years, those at the helm of affairs have been running Abia on low budgets of less than N200 billion, which, according to him, is insufficient to pull Abia out of underdevelopment.
“Any budget less than N200 billion cannot develop Abia,” he insisted, adding that he would find creative ways to enhance the state budget to be able to meet with the demands of developing the state to enviable heights.
In the past three years, the administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has been turning out less than N200 billion in its final policies with N137.419 billion for 2020, N131.815 billion in 2021 while N157.282 billion was budgeted for 2022 fiscal year. Though this year’s budget recorded 10.81 per cent increase above 2021 fiscal policy, it still fell short.
But Emenike, who is leading a mass movement “to rescue and develop Abia,” promised to set up “building blocks of development” that would place the state on the path of irreversible growth.
Apart from being insufficient, the APC governorship hopeful also noted that Abia budgets usually fail to reflect the needs of the people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of government’s fiscal policies.
“The budget of Abia should have the face of every Abian in it,” he said, pointing out that “citizens see themselves in the budget of countries where good governance is practised.”
Citing the sad fate of Abia workers and pensioners who are languishing in mounting arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities, Emenike said the government would not have found itself in such mess if budgets were truly people-oriented.
He assured he would devise a means out of the quagmire of pension arrears by constituting a committee of pensioners on rotational basis to manage the payment of pensions and clear the arrears.