…Says it is a sure way to restoring public trust in governance
As many states in Nigeria continue to face growing citizens’ demand for a transparent budgeting system, Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said that “if we do not begin to change the way we budget, the way we relate the budget to our citizens, there is going to be major crises.”
Obaseki said this in Benin City, Edo State capital, during a four-day training organised by the Edo State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, in collaboration with Open Government Partnership (OGP).
According to the Governor, “Budgeting is at the core and the heart of government and you can’t prepare a budget without the citizens.
“For us in Edo, preparing the citizens’ budget is non-negotiable, at least for me the Governor, its non-negotiable, that’s why I wanted more of our directors of finance and administration (DFA) to be here because of the core reforms we are undertaking in the civil service.”
He maintained that his administration would continue to put citizens’ interest above and ahead of other considerations in allocating the state’s resources and would continue to fight, if need be, because “We have no choice because the system
today is already rigged against people and to wrestle it back, you have to fight seriously because if you leave things the way they are, you will be shocked one day, especially now that the bulk of what we receive to fund our budget is federal allocations based on crude oil and crude oil receipts.”
Harping on the prime position of the electorate in governance, the governor added: “We as leaders don’t get into offices on our own, we go and sell ideas to our people and in turn they give us power and once we get into power, I think the first thing to do is to find out what resources are available and how to order those resources and spend those resources for the people who voted for us.”
Decrying the loss of confidence in government due to the fraudulent practice of budget padding, he noted that “over time, our people have lost trust in government, so that’s why on election day, people would rather go to the farm or do something else and not bother, and even if they are going to come out to vote, they will say yea, give me something, give me my own share of what you are going to take when you get there and that is what has dragged us to where we are in Nigeria today.”
He further said that with the dwindling revenue from the federation account, there was a need for government at all
levels to be accountable in order to be able to face the citizens and ask for more taxes.
State governments according to him “are not getting the kind of funding required from Abuja. What are you going to do? You have to rely on internally generated taxes, right? So it is going to be increasingly difficult for us politicians to go to the citizens and say pay your tax and then we are not able to explain to them how we are spending those tax revenues. So there has to be transparency and openness in the way you spend the tax revenues.”
“At the political level, we are doing what we can to change our politics and to try and make political players realize and understand that when you come out to serve, you are not there to serve yourself, government is not a business, so government is not where you come and make money, government is where you come and serve.
“So we are currently having that tension and I am very glad that we are winning because if you look at Edo State’s budget last year, for the first time, our capital budget performed over 80 per cent which means that we are getting more money from the budget to work for our people.
“There is a lot of tension; there is a lot of pain because it’s hard for people to change because we are checking every cost. Some people say that Governor Obaseki doesn’t like to spend money,
yes, because that money is not Godwin Obaseki’s personal money. That money belongs to the people of Edo State and Godwin Obaseki has the responsibility to account for every kobo that comes into the Edo State’s coffers.
“In accounting it means that I have to do it against the background of a citizens’ budget. What did I tell people that we are going to spend money on, and how have we spent that money.”
“And how do we explain all of these in a very simple, plain, clear language to our people, our people are very smart because everybody here too has their own personal budget, don’t we?
“We understand what to expect, we also have an idea of how we want to spend what we expect. We understand what happens when we are expecting such as 100 and we get only 50; we know what to do, so why can’t we apply that same concept in dealing with state or local government resources?” He asked.
The event had in attendance, government appointees and civil servants amongst others.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Princess Otse Momoh-Omorogbe, explained that the event was organized to help chart a new direction for the state’s budgeting process.
