MAMA Centre, VOICE Nigeria train rightsholders on advocacy, budget tracking

The Mothers And Marginalised Advocacy Centre (MAMA Centre) with support from Voice Nigeria organised a Capacity Building Workshop on Budget tracking and advocacy for the rightsholders. The Workshop aimed at strengthening and developing Udi rightsholders’ capacity to track, monitor, participate actively in budgetary process, while demanding accountability of budgetary allocation/implementation for livelihood projects in Udi Local Government Area. It was targeted at bridging the identified knowledge gaps among the rightsholders on their participation and right-to-know allocated sums to livelihood projects in their communities.

In her opening remarks, Director Legal, MAMA Centre, Barr. (Mrs.) Ola E. Onyegbula, lamented that abandonment of livelihood road projects across Udi communities have impacted agricultural activities negatively including women empowerment and development projection of Enugu state at large.

According to her, delays in completion of abandoned community road projects are one of the most recurring problems facing commercialisation and marketisation of agricultural productivity in Udi.

She said: “It has resulted in costly, wastage, risky and undesirable consequences on small-holder famers’, largely women also breadwinners in households, agricultural productivity.

“In many parts of Udi Local Government, normal gathering for interactions/synergy among women and small-holder farmers have been frustrated by the abandoned and inaccessible road conditions.

“Vehicles owners are in distress as their vehicles are not used optimally.

“Travelling across wards by road in Udi is a nightmare as the roads are in terrible conditions despites the so-called huge expenditure on their reconstruction.

“This failure of the roads bugs the mind of regular users, and has resulted in accumulations of flood.

“Environmental pollution and erosion have completely cut off a section of lanes.

“In fact, these problems have become an embarrassing stigma for those who use it.

“These deplorable events have also resulted in many vehicles breaking down on roads in Udi.

“Hence, emergency mechanics have sprung up to assist stranded drivers and commuters, sometimes with disastrous consequences.”

Onyegbula added: “The roads, as a matter of fact, are so dilapidated that most vehicles which ply that roads invariably end up at mechanics’ workshops at the end of every journey.

“Armed robberies, raping and other mischievous activities have assumed steady menaces along the roads, particularly at night.

“There have been accidents and, in some cases, loss of lives and property.

“Apart from the persistent loss of lives and property, bad roads also affect prices of agricultural commodities, as observed in case of Udi.

“Small-holder farmers across communities in Udi labour to bring food items to the market.

“Transporters take cognizance of the wear and tear of their vehicles occasioned by bad roads and increase transport fares.

“This without doubt degrades the rightsholders/farmers’ profitability and financial capacity.

“It also invariably translates into higher prices for commodities and services.”

As related to the Capital Projects, the Director Legal noted that it has been revealed that whopping sums are allocated annually to various livelihood projects anticipated for the development of Udi Local Government.

She however, raised a serious concern that communities across Udi have no knowledge of the allocation or responsible agencies paramount to enable monitoring and accountability.

“Lack of synergized effort at community levels to track and monitor the funds paved way for continued abandonment of several projects or poor implementation of some completed,” she bemoaned.

Technical Session/Presentation:

In a paper presentation titled “Livelihood Budget Accountability: Significance of Udi Rightholders’ Participation”, the Lead presenter, Mrs. Jessica Okereke explained that “transparency alone is not sufficient for improving implementation of livelihood projects”.

Okereke noted that inclusive community participation is crucial for realizing the positive outcomes associated with greater budget transparency and accountability.

She said: “Improved livelihoods budget outcome and good governance requires the meaningful engagement of the citizens, especially at grassroots level like Udi Local Government.

“Just as limited involvement of Udi communities in planning and implementation of the livelihood budget is one of the root causes of their abandoned road projects and failure.

“For effective implementation of livelihood projects and continuous improvement in budget outcomes, Enugu State Government has the responsibility to develop strategies for communities’ interaction and participation through all stages of the budget process.

“Participatory budgeting is a form of citizen participation in which citizens are involved in the process of deciding how public money is spent.

“While participatory budgeting at community levels focuses on promoting social justice, transparency and accountability by providing the government with community-oriented information and facts that improve financial efficiency, the rightsholders indicated little or no knowledge of the goals of government in the budget process.”

The Presenter defined budget is the earning and spending plan of Government within a financial year or one-year period.

She maintained that budgeting is an annual process, which enables a State Government to implement and achieve the goals stated in the policy document for a particular fiscal year.

“The budget is funded mainly from revenues from oil sales, taxes paid by companies/individuals, revenues from customs and excise and borrowing (Foreign and Domestic).

“Capital expenditure are those expenditures that are meant for investments in goods and services that are meant to be consumed beyond one budget year.

“They are key to the provisions of public services to the citizens. e.g. Livelihood Projects, Road Projects Infrastructure Development.

“Recurrent expenditures are those incurred every year to maintain the running and operations of Government. e.g. Wages and Salaries.

“A deficit budget occurs when the planned expenditure of Government exceeds the planned revenue within a financial year.

“The Deficit budget will largely be funded from foreign and domestic borrowings.

“Medium term expenditure framework is a process that links policies, plans and budgets of Government over a period of 3-5 years.

“You can monitor the budget by matching the budget allocations with actual expenditures and in the case of the capital budget, the executed projects can be compared with the allocations in the budget,” she noted.

Okereke continued: “Udi Rightsholders can participate in livelihood budgetary process through Active Participation in Public Hearing on Appropriation Bill at Enugu State House of Assembly; selection of rightsholders/champions as front-lead and representatives in public hearing at the State House of Assembly, and Ministries, Departments and Agencies; submission of a joint memo to the State House of Assembly at the Public Hearing;

“Others are advocacy visits to the relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies to articulate rightsholders’ expectations and concerns; active participation in tracking and monitoring of livelihood project implementation; forming a formidable group at community level to create a strong voice in reporting suspicious poor implementation.

“The Enugu State Budget Manual sets out standard budgeting processes and procedures to be followed by all state Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) when preparing and implementing annual budgets.

“The aim is for MDAs to improve how they plan and prepare budgets by engaging stakeholders and consulting with them at appropriate stages.

“Budget process of Enugu state includes Fiscal Planning, Annual budget planning, Budget presentation, Budget execution and control, Budget monitoring and evaluation.

“You can find your state budget in Enugu State Ministry of Budget and Planning; Enugu State House of Assembly; relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies; website of Enugu State Government like https://www.enugustate.gov.ng.

On the level of budgetary engagement with the Udi communities, she observed lack of input by Udi communities in budgetary process; participation in budgetary process is not open to Udi community, and representatives of the community; lack of community consultation at conceptualisation, budgetary and implementation stages of livelihood projects; inadequate understanding of the goal of citizens’ participation in budgetary process.

The presenter raised concerns over gaps in the level of knowledge among the rightsholders regarding citizens’ participation in the budget process and right to know allocated sums to livelihood projects in their communities.

“Livelihood projects implementation and sustainability without adequate community involvement are always exposed to failure.

“What to demand from budgetary process include immediate completion of the abandoned livelihood road projects in Udi; adequate community consultation at conceptualisation stage of the livelihood projects; inclusive participation in budgetary process; value for money in livelihood projects’ implementation and established credible community reporting channel on implementation process,” she revealed.

Comments/Response:

Reacting to the presentation, Program Officer, MAMA Centre-VOICE Nigeria, Mrs. Grace Oriaku commended the ongoing intervention by MAMA Centre-VOICE Nigeria under the aegis of Accountability for Empowerment (A4E) project.

She recalled that there was no known inter-community gathering among Udi rightsholders purposely to demand accountability on the abandoned road projects before the intervention.

“We must understand that Accountability for Empowerment (A4E) project would be the first platform bringing different communities in Udi Local Government under same umbrella to hold government accountable for the completion of abandoned livelihood road projects.

“Also, I and over 200 rightsholders of Nwgo-Udi community have had intra-community association created in 2019 under the previous project of MAMA Centre titled ‘EMPOWER’ also supported by the VOICE Nigeria.

“It has been an impactful empowerment platform that has been leveraged to seek support of the State Government for our palm oil processing machines to boost our palm oil business.

“We hope other communities will as well leverage the current project as an opportunity to advance your socio-economic empowerment.

“As activities unfold under the project, we look forward to share experience and render useful guides to other communities,” she highlighted.

Also, an Udi rightsholders, Mrs. Gloria Okafor, added that in many parts of Udi, farmers, especially the female farmers have suffered largely from abandoned road projects. This according to her has hampered their earning capacity from farm products as larger markets where they could be sold in Udi remain inaccessible.

“This project is timely to enable us synergise and speak with one voice.

“We must also leverage this project to form a formidable force to demand accountability from our Government and representatives, as elections approach coming 2023,” she stressed.

Mrs. Amaka Ugwu narrated the continued economic loss women have suffered from getting their farm products across bad road conditions to major markets in Udi. This includes their inability to upset the exorbitant transportation cost that decrease profitability.

She also added that perishable commodities with promising earning and profit cannot be transported across the roads, as they stand a high chance of not getting to the major markets.