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Nigeria’s National Assembly has no
functional budget office that provides the liaison between the
legislature and the executive on budget matters. This was revealed to
participants at a policy meeting at the weekend.

Chairman, House of Representatives
Committee on Finance, John Enoh, said though work had actually
commenced on the building project a few years ago, it was abandoned
shortly after following disagreements between the Presidency and
National Assembly management over issues he did not elaborate.

“There is no Budget office in the
National Assembly at present, like the Congressional Budget office.
But, a lot of work has actually gone on in the National Assembly. For
some years now, we have been working on the National Assembly Budget
office. At some point, it had actually gone for Presidential assent,
but there were some little bit of disagreements here and there with the
National Assembly management,” Mr Enoh said in an answer to a question
at the seminar.

Though the House of
Representatives has a Committee on Legislative Budget, the lawmaker
assured that the office would be fully functional during the next
National Assembly, considering its usefulness to the lawmakers in their
legislative functions.

“Unless that is done, we will keep depending almost entirely on what is given by the executive,” he said.

The office is the equivalent of
the United States Congressional Budget office established in the
Congress to engage with the budget office to provide independent
information for the legislature on the budget, before annual estimates
are presented.

Mr Enoh who was speaking on some
of the challenges that create distortion in the country’s budget
process noted that despite the existence of Fiscal Responsibility Act
(FRA) since 2007, the implementation of most of its provisions has
always been in the breach.

“The budget process is a challenge
that everybody must appreciate. For instance, there are listed agencies
and corporations of government, like the NNPC (Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation), NPA (Nigerian Ports Authority), CBN (Central
Bank of Nigeria), and so on, that the law says that when the estimates
for next year’s budget are to be led before the National Assembly, they
must accompany, so that they will be able to capture in totality what
the real figures are and not just Federal Government expenditure. I do
not think this is the case in practice,” he pointed out.

Besides, he said the country’s
budget has continued to be a problem in almost 12 years of our
democracy, either in terms of controversy about who owns the budget
process between the Executive and the legislature, or in the timing of
presentation, stressing the importance of engagement of the National
Assembly by the Executive in the process of preparing the budget to
avoid discrepancies.

Time constraint

According to him, the timing of
the budget presentation must be reviewed to give the lawmakers
sufficient time to look at the estimates presented by the executive
before passing it into law.

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act
requires that the Medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) must be
submitted to the National Assembly not later than three months to the
end of a particular year. That has not been achieved yet. The House of
Representatives passed it (the MTEF) only yesterday (Wednesday). If
that is to be led before the House by next week Tuesday, how much of
that is going to benefit from the MTEF?” He wondered.

“We must get these things right.
The National Assembly needs to have as much time as it can to work on
the budget. If in a particular year, the budget is before the NASS in
September as required by law, members would have enough time to look at
all issues before passing the appropriation law.

“The Budget office, Ministry of
Finance and all those involved in the budget process need a lot more
engagement to get the National Assembly to appreciate what damage they
could be causing the budget if the rules are not followed,” he
explained.

Budget indiscipline

Executive Director, Centre for the
Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA), Menachem Katz, said though the
Federal Government made progress in strengthening public financial
management since 2003, there has been limited improvement in service
delivery, resulting in increased budget indiscipline.

According to Mr. Katz, the
country’s budgets in recent years have become increasingly
expansionary, accounting for deficits of about 10 percent of the gross
domestic product (GDP) as well as increased spending and depletion of
the excess crude account.

On the timing of the budget
process, he said major delays have been experienced in the approval,
pointing out that there is need for the current budget calendar to be
replaced with an alternative cycle that would provide sufficient time
for in-depth discussion of government fiscal strategy and policy
priorities.

In October, flooding originating from the Oyan dam displaced
whole communities in the Ikosi-Isheri and Agboyi-Ketu local council areas of Lagos
State and other communities in neighbouring Ogun State. Days later, the Lagos
State government relocated over 1,000 of the victims to the Resettlement Centre
and Relief Camp located in Agbowa Ikosi at the outskirts of the state.

It is over two months now; the water is gone, and normalcy is
returning to the affected communities, but the people are still waiting for
government’s promise of financial assistance. While some of them still reside
at the relief camp, others say staying put in the camp would amount to self
destruction, especially when one has a family to cater for.

ThankGod Erebi, a traditional bone setter at Kio-Kio, one of the
communities that were severely impacted by the flood, has returned to his work,
even though he still maintains his room at the relief camp where he visits
occasionally.

“There are many people in the camp who go to work and return.
Some people like us don’t go there every day. I have slept there for like six
days at different times, but my family is there. There are some people who do
not go to work. There are other people like that. I can tell you that anybody
who stays there permanently does not have anything to do; that person is not
working, and the person does not have a business that he is running, because nobody
can say that there is still water in his house,” he said.

Grappling with the
disaster

The flooding had occurred largely because of the release of
water from the Oyan dam into the Ogun River which flooded its bank, and that of
other channels. Experts say it is natural for rivers to overflow their flood
plains occasionally. In this case, the houses that were affected were built on
the flood plains.

According to Mr. Erebi, water was over one foot high in most
houses during the flood and different people employed different adaptation
techniques, while some relocated to lodge with friends and family in other
parts of the state.

“When the flood happened, some people ran away to their friends’
places. Some people lost their properties, water spoilt everything for them,
especially the people that were not around when the thing happened. Me, if I
tell that I lost my property, that will be a lie. I didn’t lose my property but
I spent money to secure them. In my house, I made something like a stage,
placed my property on top. I bought nine inches blocks, 60 of them and I bought
12 planks, N1,200. So, I was laying blocks round then, I will put the planks on
top. If the water increased I will lay another line of blocks on top to raise
my properties. That’s how I managed,” Mr. Erebi said.

When the state government opened the camp and provided buses to
move the victims there, some people did not go to the camp to register,
especially those who had left the area. Some of them are now seeking to
register but to no avail. Simon Anyadike, who lives in Kio-Kio, had just put up
his furniture shop by Ikorodu Road, when the flood came. Then he travelled with
his wife and kids after enduring the flood for a few days. By the time he
returned, the camp had closed registration and he desperately wants to register
because of the money government had promised to give to registered victims of
the flood.

“My own is that I want to register my name on that list. All of
us suffered this water together, how would they now write other people’s names
and they will not write my own. Water entered my house, and many living inside
came to stay in my shop then because the place high small. So, some people were
sleeping here. I was not doing anything here, so I travelled. The first time
TVC (television channel) people came here, I was the person they interviewed.
There was water everywhere. Please tell them, they should write my name in the
list of people that will get the compensation money,” said Mr. Anyadike who had
since returned to his business.

Problems with the camp

Mr. Erebi said though food is served three times daily and
medical care services are impressive at the camp, there are still many
challenges that the people are faced with.

“The camp; they are trying in some areas, like food,” he said.
“They serve us food morning, afternoon, and night, although me, I don’t eat it,
I buy food outside, but some other people like it. All the days that I stayed
there, one mosquito did not bite me, because they [spray] the whole place and
the surrounding is neat.

“And the medical care there is very good. But the problem there
is that if you stay there, you want to buy pure water, you cannot afford it
because you don’t have money. And the children, they put them in a school where
they are doing just revision; it’s like extra moral lessons.”

No water in camp

Sinclair Olorogun, who is a member of the committee set up by
the flood victims to represent their interest at the camp, corroborated Mr.
Erebi’s point. He resides in the camp but still attends to his business as an
electrician.

“The major problem in the camp is water. When we came, Ikosi
Ejinrin Local Council Developmental Area, were bringing bags of pure water
(sachet water) for us every day. In the morning, they will bring 50, afternoon
50, evening 50; 150 bags every day. After some time the management started
selling this pure water to us. When those people discovered they were selling
it, they stopped bringing it.

“The tap water there is not good for drinking. But people are
drinking it now. The water looks clean but if you fetch and allow it for some
time it will settle and you will see what you are drinking. I’m having fever
now, look at all the drugs they gave me at the clinic, and it’s because of lack
of potable water,” Mr. Olorogun said.

But the camp commandant, Wewe Adeboye, said it is not true that
people are leaving the camp, contrary to media reports.

“Who is saying that? They are still here. We have placed their
wards in schools. They are going to school. This is what we call emergency education.
Anytime you come to the camp you will see people. We are on the last stage now,
we have gone through preparation, mitigation, response and we are now on
recovery. What we are doing now is to help them recover to the state they were
before the flooding occurred,” he said.

Mr. Adeboye said water cannot be a problem because they pump 35
litres of water from the two boreholes in the camp to serve the 1009 flood
victims and that the water was certified drinkable by the Lagos State Water
Corporation. He said the pure water supply was stopped because the sachet
constituted environmental nuisance in the camp.

While the victims await their promised financial assistance,
which will mark the end of the camping for them and possible eviction from
their communities, to forestall future disasters, Mr. Adeboye said, “the camp
was opened by the governor and will be closed by the governor”.

“Poverty was handed over to me. I inherited poverty from my dad.
Nobody gave me weekly allowance or pocket money. But there is something that
hardship does to your brain. Poverty makes you desperate to make it by all
means.”

These words were spoken by Paschal Okwundu, a Stanbic IBTC
banker, as he addressed 100 young people who attended The Ajegunle Project, a
youth enlightenment initiative organised by the Tulip Foundation, a social and
moral values non-governmental organisation on December 4, 2010 at Bequest
College, Ajegunle.

Mr. Okwundu described growing up as a 19-year-old in Ajegunle,
Lagos’s most popular slum, who wanted to go to university but whose parents had
no money to send him there. It cost N1,650 to purchase the Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board form at the time, but neither Mr. Okwundu nor his parents
could afford it.

Determined to succeed

Mr. Okwundu began to organise after-school lessons in maths and
physics for students at Hope Tutorial Centre in Ajegunle. Five days a week, he
worked two hours daily. He earned N45 an hour, making N450 weekly and N1,800
monthly. By 2001, he had saved up enough money to buy a JAMB form and he got
admission in 2002 into the University of Lagos to study chemical engineering.

“I had saved N2,500 in two years when I got my admission,” he
told the students. “But this money finished in two weeks. So I began doing home
coaching and working night jobs again. And by the time I was in year three, I
was running two businesses and making N34,000 monthly.”

Education and
transformation

Richard Yabrifa, who also grew up in Ajegunle and now works with
First Bank, also spoke to the youth on the importance of personal development.
He said the purpose of education goes beyond getting a good job, paying one’s
bills, and catering for one’s family, but becoming an agent of change in one’s
environment.

“Many people go to school but their education has not brought
much transformation to their lives because they have not realised the value of
their education, which is personal development,” he said. “Ask yourself, has
education really changed my ideas, my level of reasoning? You should see
education as your own responsibility to make an impact on the society.”

He further encouraged the youth to align their dreams of what
they wanted to achieve and become in future with their purpose for going to
school, which should not be dependent on the state, the educational system nor
their teachers.

“Purpose is that thing which motivates you to move forward.
Attach a high value to it. Without purpose, you’ll just go to school and just
make up the number, graduate, and at the end of the day become among the number
of unemployed graduates. Don’t see it as your teacher’s responsibility to give
you an education but as your personal responsibility,” continued Mr. Yabrifa.

From zero to hero

Johnson Abbaly, the president of Achievers Consortium
International, a non-profit youth empowerment organisation, compared the resilience
of Ajegunle youth to the 2005 Champions League winners, Liverpool FC, who in
the finals of the football competition came from a 3-0 deficit to win the
tournament against AC Milan.

“Nigerians have a spirit that never says die, and in Ajegunle,
that spirit is very evident in our daily survival,” he said. “Don’t allow your
background keep your back on the ground. You can come from zero and become a
hero. Stop looking down on yourself and instead start celebrating yourself as a
success.”

The coordinator of TAP and Tulip Foundation founder, Bolatito
Coker, further said the answer to rebranding Nigeria lay in changing the
mentality of the younger generation by instilling the right values in them.

“The rebranding of Ajegunle is the major focus of this project,”
she said. “With this project, we want to encourage the youth that there is more
to life, more to achieve, more to hope for, more to dream about, more to live
for, and so many more. They can be the best at what they do.”

Show some love

A motivational speaker and pastor with the Church of God
Mission, Ifeanyichukwu Harrison, who for 10 years had lived in Ajegunle, said
from his 18 years experience working with the youth, the absence of love is the
main reason children grow up to become the miscreants the society now
castigates them for.

“We need to learn to accept these so-called area boys and give
them a sense of purpose,” he said. “Most of them have become what they are
because nobody loved them, because nobody wanted them. As a people, we need to
show some love.”

Youth speak

Many youth who attended the TAP event said they had come to see
themselves and their environment differently. Priscilla Arinze, a recent
secondary school leaver who for 15 years has being living in Ajegunle, said
that the messages had inspired her. Before then, she had questioned the
necessity of an education in Nigeria.

“The youth in Ajegunle need to change their mentality and know that
education is necessary,” said 17-year-old Miss Arinze. “I used to wonder what
is the need going to school but now I understand the usefulness of an education
is to learn more and develop myself. I have learnt to aspire for greater
heights.” Edidiong Solomon, a 12-year-old JS3 student of VKC Schools in
Ajegunle, said: “I learnt that my environment cannot stop me from becoming
something in future. I am going to make a difference in this country and
improve Ajegunle.”