Budget: CHRCR exposes Kogi gov’t

The Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR), Executive Director, Idris Milik, has berated the budgetary process in Kogi state, describing it as cut and paste process that lacks priority areas.

Reacting to 2020 budget as presented by the Kogi state, Governor Yahaya Bello at the floor of the state House of Assembly last Thursday in a statement issued in Lokoja, Miliki noted that budget suppose to be an  important instrument for development that shapes the direction and activities of government.

He stressed that the budget has remained a cut and paste process, without priority areas such as Industrialisation of the state, employment generation, housing, health, and agriculture.

“It is a document that should not have been prepared alone and implemented by the government without the necessary input from the citizens.

“It is worrisome that despite the various efforts by citizens of Kogi state to be part of the budgetary process, the executive prepared, and submitted a budget of over N176 billion without input of the citizens beyond the civil servants and political appointees.

“The sad issue is that there is no correlation between the beautiful New Direction agenda targets document and the budgets so far. It is ridiculous for a budget that would kick start a new administration in January 2020, could not tell the citizens the number of houses to be built in the next one year, despite the fact that the biggest cement factory is located in the state.

“It could not tell the people the number of jobs to be created in the state in the next one year. More worrisome and condemnable is the lack of provision or even mention of the conduct of elections into the local government councils more than 4 years after”

Lamenting further he said “What is the justification of these humongous expenses for a government that has not commissioned a single bedroom in terms of housing and has failed to conduct Local Government elections?

“What is the rationale and justification for the continued violation of Section 7(1) of the 1999 constitution as amended in respect of conduct of local government council elections?

“It is worrisome and condemnable the level of frivolous and unjustifiable expenses estimates that has been repeated in the 2020 budget estimates as presented to the Kogi state House of Assembly on the 4th December 2019.

“We therefore call on the Kogi state House of Assembly to organize a public hearing on this unjustifiable budget proposal. We call on them to read this budget proposal in details and make further arrangements and re-arrangements and approve areas that can develop the state.

“As we await the inauguration of a new government on January 27th 2020, we call on the citizens of Kogi state, in and out of the country, not to abandon the state but continue to engage the state institutions of governance as we have no other state than this,” he stated.