Groups say five oil states’ budgets are secret documents

Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say the 2016 budgets of five oil states in the Niger Delta have been shrouded in secretary. Social Action and its allies say it has been forced to go to the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) to seek help.

The Social Action, Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform and other partners said in a statement in Port Harcourt that the situation was worrisome because half in the budget year, the citizens could still not study the budgets of states such as Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Delta.

Ken Henshaw and Ekpere Prince, who signed off for the groups, said the affected states had not deemed it appropriate to make copies of their annual budgets available on the state official websites or otherwise for public access. “This is the high point of a tradition of executive and legislative secrecy, which has become common practice in the aforementioned states.”

The non-availability of the budget, they stated, has made it impossible for citizens and organizations to monitor public expenditure and provide critical feedback to the government. “It has also made it impossible for citizens of the various states to know what capital projects of importance to them will be implemented. This practice has alienated citizens from playing any role whatsoever in their fiscal governance.”

Some journalists covering Rivers State had equally raised this matter at a briefing by the Rivers State Commissioner of Information, Austin George, who promised to help out, but according to the secretary of the Correspondents Chapel, Amaechi Okonkwo who coordinated the request, nothing came out of the request.

Social Action has now made make bold to state thus; “For governments that lay claim to transparency and accountability in the management of public resources, it is worrying that they will choose to keep the budget secret from citizens. This is a negation of that principle and also a negation of the very ethos of democracy. Citizens have a right to know how the government intends to spend their money. Having a legislature and an executive arm of government does not equate to annihilating the role of citizens in governance.”

On the above premise, the groups and their partners placed a call on the affected state governments to immediately make the 2016 budget of the states available on the official websites.

The group added; “As a follow up to this, we have presented Freedom of Information Requests to the various state budget offices, requesting the documents. As the Freedom of Information Act 2011 stipulated, we expect the said information to be made available within seven days of getting this request. We hope the governments stay true to their professed commitment to transparency, accountability and prudent use of public resources by availing citizens of the 2016 budget.”