A policy analyst, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has said that the 2021 budget of the Rivers State government discloses very serious inconsistencies between budgetary allocations for certain projects and the actual amounts claimed to have been expended on such projects.
In a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, the analyst described the budget as “mere theatrical costume laced with bizarre and irreconcilable errors”, addding that “it is a clear underhand tactic contrived for reformation of individual pockets’.
For instance, he said, “under the top capital projects for 2021, the construction/renovation of hospitals across the 23 local government areas costs N8.5 billion, whereas, same item got a whooping N9.7 billion under the 2020 budget with no new features added to existing health infrastructure anywhere in the state”.
Continuing he said, “under the 2020 budget, over N15 billion was earmarked for provision of equipment and furnishing of government schools across the local government areas, and in the 2021 fiscal policy, the same item got budgetary allocation of N8.2 billion. It is shocking to learn that between 2020 and now, public schools have neither undergone any form of furnishing nor received any new equipment”.
He added; “Community Secondary School, Okoro-N’Odo, in Obio Akpor Local Government Area, represents the rot and decay in public schools in the state. At CSS Okoro-N’Odo, students are subjected to the foul stench from feces in classrooms with badly perforated roofs and dusty floors on which they sit. No doors, windows, desks etc., yet, billions have been shared-out by government officials”.
He pointed out that “another atrocious scam is the completion of 191 model primary schools across the state.
According to him, that item got over N8 billion in the 2021 budget. N11.9 billion was set aside for same projects earlier in the 2020 budget.
He said, ” the appalling standard of education in public schools tells more of the embezzlement scandals represented in the shocking infamy that has permeated through successive fiscal policies of the state government since 2015″.
He noted that Community Primary School, Amaku-Igbodo in Etche Local Government Area, is one out of the very many public primary schools where the dignity in citizenship and the worth of education are reduced to nothingness.
“Nature has taken over classrooms in Community Primary School, Mba, Etche, where academic activities have been halted for four years for lack of teachers. State School, Isu, Etche, has turned into a playground for children and meadow for hey while Central Primary School, Isu, Etche and several others have been converted to places of dwelling for reptiles and biting and sucking insects, all for lack of government attention. State School 4 and 5 in Ibaa Community, Emohua local government area, have both been consigned to history. In fact, it will take the expertise of anthropologists to discover the sites where those two public schools were located in Ibaa, but the challenge will be the lack of ‘ancient remains’ with which to make the discovery.If pupils and students of public schools still sit on bare floors after billions have been channeled to furnish and provide basic facilities under the budgets of 2020 and 2021, then it is safe to settle that the N4 billion provided in the 2021 fiscal policy for the provision of landscaping, sports field, basketball pitch and play pen for 200 schools across the state is mere cosmetics and grossly fallacious. A visit round public schools across the state will not only confirm these facts, but will definitely expose more rots in the system. It also beats one’s imagination to see the state government budget over N6 billion for the ‘production of healthy food for human consumption’ when in fact, the state on its own, produces absolutely nothing. if Rivers State government can set aside N6 billion for the “theoretical” production of food for human consumption, then Akwa-Ibom, Ebonyi, Lagos, Cross River Oyo and others that have expanded their economic capabilities through the creation of industries and are engaged in “practical” production should be budgeting trillions for same item”, he stated.
Furthermore, Eze said “the sum of N68 million for Job Information Management System under the 2021 budget is an obvious engagement in fanfare of squander mania, when for the past six years, no job has been created.
“I weep for Rivers over this huge commission of waste, A lot of questions are begging for answers, he lamented, stating, “What more can one say about the N1.1 billion set aside for scholarship program in the budget under an administration that withdrew financial grants to students captured in the state scholarship scheme during the administration of ex-Governor Amaechi”.
“Given a careful summation of funds generated from IGR, the Amaechi N78.9Bn refund, the Paris Refund, bailout funds, loans, monthly allocations & 13% derivatives, etc., all of which amounts to hundreds of billions, it is safe to categorically settle that there are no commensurate projects for the huge sums that were credited to the state accounts with deposit money banks. Assuming the monies for the very many ‘cosmetic projects’ under the 2020 budget are intact, then there would not be need for any loan to fund projects in the 2021 fiscal framework. The big question: Where is the balance left from 2020 budget? A demand for the leftover from the budget of 2021 is very, very necessary”, Eze stated.
He further stated that “while Ikoku and Rumuokoro overhead bridges cost N1.5 and N1.2 billion respectively in the 2021 budget, over N25 billion has been expended on the two flyover bridges. The situation in Rivers State is a clear case of ‘much ado about nothing’. “No creativity, no innovative idea, no plans for investment, no commensurate results for the multi-billion naira annual budgets since 2015, yet people seem cowed into the broad day heist of the common patrimony by an unrefined toothless bulldog.”
Chief Eze called on the good people of Rivers State to come together and prepare to ask for refund of monies swindled through non- existent projects and over-blotted annual budgets, running into billions.
He said “not less than 40% of the annual budget of Rivers State is plundered by Gov. Wike each year and it is a frightening reality.”
Eze emphasized the need for the budgets of 2016 to 2020 to be made public to allow citizens of the state the opportunity to carefully scrutinize them, differentiate between real and imaginary projects and weigh the actual costs of executed projects in order to sum the total amount to which the Governor is indebted to the state, to enable the people begin to make arrangements to make demands for refund upon the expiration of his term in 2023 and before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is formally invited.
“Those who love the Governor would endorse the idea of publishing the budgets of Rivers State Government since 2016 including the supplementary budget of 2015 so that people can carefully look through the pages of the work and help the Governor sum the total refund he would be making to the state at the end of his administration in 2023” Eze said.
