By Yusuf Ishaku Goje
Governance is the process of decision-making towards meeting your security and welfare needs. This is carried out through development plans, policy and financial frameworks. If you are wondering why your community needs, by extension yours too, are not being met it is simply because you are not effectively engaging the process.
The budget is a critical component of the governance process as that is where priorities are allocated financial resources to deliver tailored-services that will meet our collective or individual needs. Mind you, the budget is a law; hence when your needs are not captured in it, it cannot be met. As both elected and appointed officeholders have no powers to spend outside what has been budgeted.
So, rather than only come on social media to complain or criticize those in government, endeavor to engage the budget process, ask the right questions to ensure your needs are captured and hold the government accountable to ensure they deliver on it. That is the only way development outcomes can be delivered in terms of reduction in the rates of illiteracy, child and maternal mortality, unemployment, hunger, poverty and insecurity.
Have you observed that most elected officeholders woo you during elections and run away from you during the governance process? It is simply because they want monopoly over the governance (budget) process to have unhindered access to our commonwealth. They are aware if you participate, monies that are usually diverted in secrecy will be tracked and exposed. The large chunk of monies being stolen are done during the budget process with frivolous priorities and allocations made; and siphoning of huge sums done through inflated and mismanaged contracts.
The budget has a full cycle starting with the formulation, where sources of revenue are identified and priorities are set. This is followed by the appropriation and approval stage, where it is scrutinized by the legislature and enacted into law. Then the most important stage is the execution, where revenues generated are released for recurrent (personnel and overhead costs) and capital (programs, projects and interventions) expenditures. The final stage is evaluation, where performance is audited to ensure services have been delivered in terms of quality and value for money.
Through out these stages, you, yes you the citizens have the right (Section 14, 2c of the 1999 Constitution, as amended) to participate in the process. This is because the budget is suppose to address your security and welfare needs not that of the elected officeholders, whom you have given your mandate. If in your opinion the government is not meeting your security and welfare needs, it is largely because you are not effectively engaging the budget process.
Therefore for a start, here are key steps to effectively engaging the process first being INTERESTED in governance, getting INFORMED on the budget process, building your INTEGRITY (sincerity of purpose) INVOLVE like-minded people, take INITIATIVE, be INNOVATIVE and INSIST until you get what you want.
The 2022 Kaduna state budget has been approved so engage, ask the right questions and hold the government accountable.
