Ignorance that centres on what is budgeted and the actual amount released for government operation is getting Delta Information Commissioner worried
OpenLife reports that Ehiedu Aniagwu Charles, Delta State Commissioner of Information, is lamenting over the high level of ignorance about the government’s operations in Nigeria.
As a remedy, Ehiedu Aniagwu has stressed the need for more sensitize of members of the public in the way they think about the operation and operationality of government as regards budget generation and spending.
This was the fulcrum of the Commissioner’s concerns when he defended his ministry’s 2021 budget proposal before the State House of Assembly Committee on Information and Communication in Asaba.
According to him, “There is urgent need to sensitize Deltans in a number of areas because, in all honesty, there are lots of ignorance about the operations of government.
“For instance, when they said the budget is N320 billion, an Individual wakes up and say, look they have squandered N320 billion. Meanwhile, the N320 billion is not in anybody’s pocket and it is just an intention that you are hoping that at the end of the year, you will have been able to generate the funds and used it to address a good number of issues affecting the state.
“Out of the assumed N320 billion, and even if it was realized, more than 50% will be spent on the recurrent part of the budget which includes e-payment of salaries, overhead running of government, and if 50% was taken from the budget, you will be left with N169billion. If you are now talking about what they have squandered, will you now say that the man has squandered N320 billion when you know the government is running in the course of the year, and beyond that, there are also a good number of projects that the government has executed in the course of the same year?”
“It is unfortunate when some members of the media want to be critical, they take the entire budget as if the budget means cash at hand and then, they take the government to the cleaners that they are not accountable.” Further, Aniagwu asked rhetorically “How then do you now judge the government on the basis of what was budgeted and not on what was realized and possibly released?”
He disclosed that in the course of the year, the Ministry of Information would do a lot of sensitization on the need for the media to realize the objective aspect of reporting, adding that consideration would be given to training and retraining of journalists on developmental principles.
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