By Hashim Abba
Budget stories are hard to read. They are even harder to write. Business journalists know this only too well. Budget stories don’t resonate well with the public not only because most people have a difficult time wading through and making sense of the labyrinth of projections contained in them but also because most of us are innumerate, that is, we have no literacy in numbers, and numerophobic, to boot.
But whatever you may think about budgets, they do matter. They serve as the guideposts of governance and the tool with which governments navigate the complex contours of competing expectations, interests, and needs. Budgets also tell us the priorities our governments cherish. That’s why outgoing American Vice President Joe Biden once said, “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
As a Yobe state indigene with a keen interest in public policy analysis, I decided to look at this year’s budget to see and tell what Governor Ibrahim Gaidam values and prioritizes, to paraphrase Vice President Joe Biden. Most importantly, I want to make sense of the budget so that people who are intimidated by the verbosity and numerical maze of budgets don’t have to read it.
In other words, I want to help my fellow Yobeans to understand the core provisions and implications of the budget.
This year’s budget is unique because it came at a time of the worst economic recession in our recent history and in the aftermath of the most brutal insurgency the northeast of Nigeria has ever witnessed. So it was no surprise that this year’s total budget size of N69,389,317,000 is 22 percent lower than last year’s figure of N86, 658,299,000.
But it is remarkable that in spite of the reduced budget, occasioned by the steep shortfall in government revenues, the budget still has a lot of admirable, praiseworthy goodies for the people of Yobe State. For starters, 60.5 percent of the budget will be dedicated to recurrent expenditure while 39.5 percent will fund capital projects—a reversal of the spending format last year. On the surface, this looks routine and not worthy of commentary. But at a time when most states can’t pay salaries to their workers for months on end, Yobe State under the leadership of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has always stood out as one of only a few states in the country that don’t owe a kobo to any worker.
Although there is much more to recurrent expenditure than the payment of salaries, the allocation of a little over 60 percent of the budget to recurrent expenditure meansthat the governor is sensitive to the dire economic straits the vast majority of our people live in and the need to salvage them through prompt and continuous payment of salaries and in the injection of funds to the economy through purposeful, targeted expenditures.
It is also noteworthy that the economic sector took the lion’s share of this year’s budget with a N29,009,187,000 allocation. This is a wise and farsighted move because the economy is the fulcrum around which the society revolves. Although Yobe State’s economic fortunes are tied to the fortunes of the nation at large, it is commendable that Governor Gaidam is concerned with stepping up efforts to bolster the economy at the state level.
The social sector—of which education, health, youth, and social development, etc. are important parts— got the second highest share of the budget with the allocation of N27,673,849,000. There is no gainsaying the fact that the social services sector, especially education and health, are central to the proper functioning of any society.
My highlighting the importance of the economy and the social services sector in no way suggests that the law, peace, justice and security sector and the governance sector, which each got 1,738,425,000 and 10,967,856,000 respectively, aren’t important. They absolutely are. Who can deny the crucial role that security plays in the wellbeing of societies? We in the northeast who bore the brunt of Boko Haram insurgency for the past several years can speak to the importance of peace.
However, it is also true that through President Muhammadu Buhari’s single-minded determination and dedication, for which we will eternally be grateful to him, peace is returning to our land, our confidence is being rebuilt, and Boko Haram is being decimated.
It is therefore logical that the Gaidam administration has chosen to prioritize the economy and the social services sector. A society recovering from the devastation of years of bloody insurgency needs a resuscitated economy and a vibrant social sector.
It is impossible to capture all the details of the budget in this piece, but some things struck me as I went through Governor Gaidam’s budget proposal. In his budget speech, the governor identified the focus of his economic renewal efforts to include, “improving physical infrastructure, boosting agricultural production through expansion of irrigation activities, Livestock Development Programme, solid mineral exploitation and development of tourist attraction sites for the purpose of attracting domestic and foreign investments and enhancement of internally generated revenue.”
Specifically, in the 2017 budget, roads will be built in parts of the state where they don’t exist, and those that were started in the outgoing financial year will be completed next year.“Emphasis shall be placed on completion and rehabilitation of road projects namely 300Km Trans-Sahel road linking Yunusari to Machina by awarding contract for the section covering Yusufari to Karasuwa and the construction of Damaturu-Buni-Gari-Magza Yobe/Borno border road,” the governor said.
“We will also award contract for the construction of the uncompleted segment of Bayamari to Nguru road in addition to the Damaturu-Kaliyari Federal roads which have been left unattended to.”But that’s not all. Other minor roads will also be constructed in such places as Godowoli-Siminti and Girgir-Karege.
The completion of the Damaturu Regional Water Supply Project is also in the works. So are the drilling and repairs of boreholes and tube wells, purchase of water reticulation materials and provision of water conservation projects across representative parts of the states.It is well-known that water is part of the complex matrix of human survival, a fact UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon recognized when he said, “We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all”. So our governor has his heart in the right place.
Agriculture, the mainstay of the state’s economy, will also receive attention next year, particularly in the area of irrigation. The sum of N625,000,000 was set aside for the completion of “on-going irrigation projects at Boloram, Jumbam, Muguram and Nguru lake,” the governor said, and for new projects“in Kushimaga, Ngalda, Garin Gada and Wachakal,” including the “dredging of river channels and water control structures along Burum-Gana, Komadugu Gana and Komadugu Yobe river systems.” This is simply impressive, especially in light of dwindling resources.
Another highlight of the budget is the priority it gives to education.Indicatively, the education sector got the highest allocation of N17.788 billion in the 2017 budget. The state government has rededicated itself to investing resources to upgrade the quality of education in the state through the construction of new classrooms and the renewal of old ones at all levels of education, payment of examination fees for indigent students who will take national examinations next year, disbursement of bursary and scholarships for students in higher educational institutions both at home and abroad, strengthening of the Tsangaya education system, and so on.
But perhaps the most heartwarming bit of news in the education sector for me is the planned take-off of the Medical College of the Yobe State University in 2017. It means our state university would be equipped to train medical manpower and no longer be dependent on other states to do this for us. This would be a momentous milestone for Yobe State.
Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s Founding Fathers, once said, “If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” This year’s budget, just like previous years’ budgets, show that Governor Gaidam is actively emptying the state’s purse into the heads of Yobe State indigenes. The interest in this sort of investment isn’t always ready in the immediate run because it takes time, but it sure as hell will come someday.
The state’s projected investments in the health of its people is also remarkable, as is its emphasis on social security for the poor and empowerment of the youth, both alone and in partnership with such international bodies as the World Bank. Internally Displaced People (IDPs) will also get succor in the budget.
In more ways than one, the proposed budget seeks to build on the successes that were recorded in last year’s budget. That’s why the budget is indicatively dubbed the “budget of consolidation and self-reliance.”
There is something in it for everyone. It is hoped that all the great things contained in the budget come to fruition so that Yobe State can rise to the next level. But as citizens of the state we need to collectively ensure the success of this budget by being supportive and understanding where the occasion calls for it and being constructively critical where necessary.
Hashim, a policy and development commentator, writes from Sabon Pegi area, Damaturu Yobe State.
