Budget is a collection of governments plan for a particular period, which contains projects to be executed in various part of the country. It is a voluminous document compiled by government to confuse people, so that most citizens will not show interest in tracking the projects therein. For instance, the 2018 budget of Federal Government (FG) is a 1460-page document, while that of 2019 is 1,336 pages. The projects in the Nigeria budget are grouped by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government executing them, rather than by States in the Federation or Federal Constituencies.
As it was rightly said by a great man that the best way to hide something from black people is to put it in a book, how many Nigerians have time to read through a 1460-page document and be looking for projects meant for execution by FG in his/her state? So, citizens will never know the budgeted projects funded by government in their communities, which has undoubtedly opened ways for politicians, civil servants and contractors to connive and fraudulently divert the money.
The budget is a legal document meant to enrich politicians, contractors and few people in government MDAs. The infrastructural deficits in our societies are not as a result of inadequate funding for various projects needed to develop our communities, but due to the diversion of taxpayers money released for the execution of those projects. Corruption in the constituency projects execution (which is the focus of many of the few people monitoring budget) is a tip of an iceberg, but the peak of corruption lies in the execution of Capital projects domiciled in various MDAs.
We have seen cases where funds released for execution of projects are diverted and shared among civil servants in MDAs, politicians and contractors. We have seen cases where contractors receive payments for projects not executed, and the sharing formula is in such a way that MDAs would certify the contractors to have completed the work and pay for the projects. The proceeds of this crime might be shared among themselves at the detriment of the communities that should have benefitted from genuine and complete execution of the projects. We have seen cases where the politicians and even the MDAs are the owners of the companies that receive contracts for the projects execution, which lead to conflict of interest and improper execution of the projects. There are cases where projects funded by taxpayers money are diverted to personal properties owned by contractors, legislators, MDA bosses, politicians, etcetera at the detriment of the citizens.
The usual practice of presenting government-funded projects as personal donations by politicians is not new to us.
In the recent times, citizens’ interest in politics has risen to a very high level.
Politicians are now understanding that political power belongs to the people, but they are very informed that it is a temporary business venture that is periodic. Politicians have taken women and youths as their business tools that will be transiently rewarded for political support only during the electioneering period. Politicians have made the delivery of good governance to citizens as privilege rather than inalienable right that citizens are entitled to. While citizens participation in politics is good for our democracy, it is worrisome that the level of citizens participation in governance and monitoring of public funds could be described as insignificant compared to how people take politics and religion serious.
Nigerians will pray to God for provision of money to pay children school fees, buy fuel to power generator, repair cars, buy water, and provide many other basic needs. However, we have forgotten that we are the reasons why most of these prayers are not answered. If we had monitored the money budgeted and released for construction of classrooms, provision of instructional materials, recruitment and training of teachers, and other items in the education sector, our public schools would have been well-equipped with facilities and faculties that will make learning conducive for our children such that we might not need to be striving for huge school fees payment in private schools. If we had monitored the money budgeted and released for power, our prayer for money to buy fuel for generator would be needless as constant electricity should have been a thing of the past. If we had monitored the funds budgeted and released for the construction and rehabilitation of roads, our cars maintenance would have been affordable as bad roads are the major spoiler of our cars. If we had monitored the funds budgeted and released for water projects, we would not be spending our little resources to provide portable water to our homes by now.
Citizens should know the cost of corruption in every society. An embezzlement of as little as 300 million naira (an amount that is easily embezzled by politicians, civil servants and contractors through our budget) will deprive about 100 communities the provision of solar-powered boreholes, 30 communities the provision of 3 classrooms with furniture, and 30 communities about kilometer of road construction or rehabilitation. So, if only we could take budget tracking as serious as religion and politics, Nigeria will be better than many countries in the world. It is on this note that the Kwara State Government is called upon to be sincere in the handling of the Kwara State Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill 2019 needed to empower Kwarans to track how projects in the Kwara State and Local Government Areas budgets are executed. Dr Alagbonsi, is the coordinator of ENetSuD.