Gauging Fubara’s Vision For Rivers State Through Budget 2024

For more than eight years, the people of Rivers were not privileged to see the details of the budget of their state government.
All they heard were the budget summaries that were sent to the House of Assembly for approval and subsequently assented to by the government.
Try as much as they could, the civil society could not get the government to open up the details of the budgets and their sectoral allocations for all the years that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of Chief Nyesom Wike, held sway.
If they could not access the budget, which was the mere statement on what the government intended to spend in the affected fiscal year, it was even more difficult to get the audited reports on how the budgets spent.
That is why it sounded like good news when Governor Siminalayi Fubara reeled out the details of the sectoral allocations of the 2024 budget that he presented to the house of assembly for approval, even when the budget presentation also fell into the same trap of the budgets presented by Wike.
Like the Wike budgets, Fubara’s budget was not subjected to the conventional public hearing and budget defences by heads of ministries and parastatals. This denied the people the opportunity to see up close and appreciate the allocations to the various sectors.
But then, considered against the circumstances that surrounded the budget presentation and its summary approvals, it could be appreciated. It is hoped that the government would do a breakdown of the budget eventually. That too looks like a longshot because of the crisis in the state executive council, which saw the commissioner of finance, Mr. Isaac Kamalu, resign along with some other commissioners.
In the general sectoral allocations of the budget, governance got the highest allocation of N162 billion naira; Infrastructure came next with N128 billion, while Education had N40 billion. The Health sector came next with N32 billion while Agriculture followed with N20 billion.
Public Administration had N14 billion allocation while Culture and Tourism as well as Environment and Sustainable Development were allocated N8 billion each.
Finance and Planning got N8 billion as Judiciary got N6 billion. Information and Communications got N2 billion; Commerce and Investments got N1.7 billion, while Social Development got N157 million allocations.
From the sectoral allocations, it is obvious that the plank of Fubara’s 2024 budget rests mainly on Governance. Expectedly the cost of governance will rise in 2024 because of several factors, one of which is the employment of 11,000 civil servants who will begin to earn salaries from the state’s coffers in 2024. There are also expectations that government may implement an improved salary structure for workers because of the rising cost of living.
The second highest allocation went to infrastructure, an area that will involve many road and bridge projects. The governor had promised to complete many of such projects he inherited and embarked on new ones to maintain the tempo of road infrastructure development that he inherited. The Port Harcourt Ring Road project, considered the most ambitious state government project in Nigeria had earlier been captured in the 2023 supplementary budget.
Education’s prime allocation can be easily explained with the expansion of investment in higher education, payment of bursaries and recruitment of new teachers by the state government.
In the area of health, the high allocation could be explained with the new recruitments into the Health Management Board and the Primary Healthcare Board, which will take effect in the coming year. Besides, the state government has shown more interest in the teaching hospital, opening of more secondary health care centres and introducing a health insurance scheme for workers and certain category of citizens.
By far the most impressive allocation was the allocation to Agriculture, which for almost a decade had suffered serious neglect by state government. Agriculture got N20 billion. The governor had expressed his desire to invest in food security and agriculture. This he did with his well publicised visit to the Songhai Farms at Bunu/Ban-Ogoi in Tai local government area.
The revival of the various agriculture projects abandoned in the past and the initiation of new ones will go a long way to fight the food crisis being experienced in the state and provide employment and empowerment for millions of people in the sector.
Public Administration got N14 billion. 2024 is the year for the conduct of local government elections and a lot of the allocation will go there. With the revival of activities in the civil service, more training and in-service programmes will be expected in the new year.
The huge allocation of N7.7 billion to Finance and Planning, the sector will go to support the plan by the state government to expand its tax net and bring in more revenue to government. Besides, the state government is still involved in a lot of revenue cases, which it intends to pursue vigorously to help it drive more revenue into its vaults.
With the huge investments already done in the judiciary, especially in Port Harcourt where courtrooms, administrative blocks and residential quarters have been built, furnished and equipped for the judiciary, it could be understood why the allocation to the sector stayed low at N5.6 billion.
The allocation of a mere N2.2 billion to Information and Communications may not do well to support government’s information apparatus in an age when media organisations need to be digitized to compete globally. A lot of training and investment is needed in this sector.
For a state that has been calling for investments and has been lamenting the exit of investors, N1.7 billion is a far cry from what is needed to provide the atmosphere for the needed investments.
It’s a similar situation for social development where only 156 million was allocated despite the large number of people needing rehabilitation and support in the state, considering the mass migration from rural areas to urban centres with little social security systems.
Rivers State is home to a rich variety of cultures and tourist attractions. A lot of the cultural practices and displays of the people need to be developed further, promoted and exposed to attract investments and tourists.
At a time when the environment of the state has been badly devastated by oil exploration and crude artisanal petroleum activities as well as devastated by annually recurring floods, the allocation to that sector is grossly inadequate.
Maybe, by the time the implementation of the budget begins, a clearer picture of Governor Fubara’s vision for Rivers State through his budget may emerge.