Let there be light, and there was light in Gov. Alia’s first budget speech

The budget presentation to the State or National Assembly as the case may be is an accountability, appraisal as well as a projection of the future exercise. It is a sequence of where we were, where we are and where we want to be. In essence, it is about the past, the present and the future.

The curious thing about most introductions about budgets is that they tend to give background information on the subject matter, which is not so far from the opening paragraph of this write up. By virtue of introduction highlighted in the publication that has necessitated this rejoinder, to counter the unnecessary distractions raised by the former Chief Press Secretary to the immediate past Governor of the state, Mr. Nathaniel Ikyur, in the interest of those who might have read the write up titled; “GAPS In Gov. Alia’s 2024 Budget Speech”, it stipulates the background information of His Excellency, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia ,who rode on the back of populism that symbolize a divine mandate to rescue Benue from the bad governance, worsen by his Principal.

This indeed is delving into the past to provide information on where things were, so that a narrative of going forward can be well situated and articulated. So if nothing is wrong with this, then what is so wrong, with Governor Alia evaluating things, where he met them, so as to situate a discourse going forward.

Mr. Nathaniel in that publication Quoted Luke 9:62 which says, “whatsoever puts his hand to the plow, and looking back, is not fit for the kingdom” but why not situate this biblical quotation in the right context, given the existing situation that warranted Jesus injunction to this effect? In essence, there is a plow somewhere that someone should put his hands on. The question is, what is the State of the plow? An understanding of this state, will give one a sound footing into doing the needful, moving forward.

But it can be understood that the Plow was so wrecked by the outgone administration, so much that a mention of it spells doom for Ortom and his defenders. Someone once said, the former Governor has taught us to be wary of people quoting the Bible, while engaging in economic and or political discourse. That once someone does that, at the next turn, there goes the misrepresentation of facts. That Ortom quoted so much of the Bible, and even dedicated Benue State to God, but forgot that portion of the Bible that a worker deserves his wages, so much so that he added 8-months of workers’ salary arrears to the three months left by preceding governments.

That said, in understanding the science and art of the budget process is suggestive of the extent, one appreciates and lays out criticism. The performance as presented by His Excellency, Rev Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, in my understanding, is suggestive of a quarter by quarter performance, as well as the Quarter-to-year-to-date performance. This means that the aggregated lump sum collected by Ortom within his quarter reported a 21.7%. In essence, if he had N100 then he was only able to channel about N30 within the same period. Does this depict that Ortom did extremely well? I guess no! Based on the fantastic performance as ascribed to Ortom’s performance, by his former Chief Press Secretary, which has necessitated this rejoinder, is it not curious to know that as at 2022 fiscal year, when Benue State was completely under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Ioraer Ortom, the State of States Fiscal sustainability ranking in Nigeria placed Benue State as 36th out of 36 States in Nigeria. Does this not call for concern for Nathaniel Ikyur, as the defender of that government?

It is worrisome, that understanding assumptions of a budget is problematic to the former Chief Press Secretary. The assumptions of this budget, are predicated on the Medium Term Economic Framework and passed by the National Assembly, whose assumptions again were slightly changed on presentation of the National Budget to the National Assembly, by the President Bola Tinubu, and these assumptions are likely to change by the time National Assembly passes the Appropriation Act, given the contending arguments by the National assembly with Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The question is, do states adopt the macro assumptions contained in the Medium Term Economic Framework that were submitted by the Budget Office and passed as Law by the National Assembly? Or do states adopt the macro assumptions as at Budget presentation to the National Assembly? Or should all sub-nationals, wait for the National Assembly to pass the National budget, containing the reviewed assumptions, before the Sub-national governments start domesticating same assumptions? Or do states adopt macro assumptions in the State-constructed MTEF that are passed by the State Assemblies? Or do states take a mean of all these selected macroeconomic assumptions to create values that will serve as their macroeconomic assumptions?

Or do sub-national governments adopt the current figures of these macro assumptions? Or do sub-nationals completely do away with macroeconomic assumptions, given that at each stage most of these assumptions reflect different values? Is there that understanding that the States also need to pass their budgets of the next fiscal year (in this case 2024) before the end of the current financial year (in this case 2023) or else the entire process becomes a nullity? What is the justification that has given people the inkling that all macro assumptions of the National Must not be altered slightly by Sub-nationals, even more so as in the face of variations of macro assumptions scenarios playing out at the center?

Given the hazy outlook associated with the final assumptions at the National, wherefore one is not sure what the final assumptions will be, and the limitedness of time for States to also pass their budgets, In the interim, is it not more realistic to work using the accounting principle of conservatism, to arrive at slightly lower than the ceilings at the center, given current realities with a bit of historical modelling, to account for State’s macroeconomic assumptions, which has the capacity to also serve as a buffer mitigating factor against shocks to the budget? Do folks understand that zero-based budgeting approach alludes to justifying every expense from ground up, as such being realistic is the core of this approach?

Moreso that this was the driver of the budget as contained in the call circulars offered State MDAs. Do folks understand that Macro assumptions at the National are not cast in stone, but just guides that should enable planning as the case may be? Who says that one cannot exchange his goods at an exchange rate lower or higher than the one at the center? Who says that all sub-national economies must grow at the same rate both vertically with the center, and horizontally across all other States?

If that been the case, then all states should have been poor equally. But I guess this is not the case. In this regards, does it not make economic sense that one works from a point of surplus than deficit to account for Macro assumptions of the budget, so much that it becomes a win-win situation, given the opportunity of a supplementary budget, which provides feedbacks to again retweet, and properly situate in current and realistic terms, if outliers are noticed in the budget, during preparations and implementation? The point here is that the Budgeting is a science as well as an art, that should be carefully managed in a manner that will ensure that at the end of the day, the people should rejoice, when the righteous is on the throne, which is exactly the current feeling amongst Benue people as at date.

There is something about a name, Benue gave Ortom, maximum support with the hope that he will utilize his name to work and work for the good of Benue State, but he decided to play politics throughout the 8 years of his tenure, to the detriment of good governance. Ortom was simply a poor manager of resources and people, more so that he knew all and would never listened to advice. One thing that cannot be taken away from Ortom is that indeed he is a good politician. Everything to Ortom is politics, he does not know where the boundaries of politics stop, and that of good governance begin. He was simply the architect of his own problems, which on the whole affected Benue negatively. Let it be on record that the populism goodwill that Ortom rode to government House, was twice more than what His Excellency Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia enjoyed. The reason being that the wind of change was able to bring down a PDP led government, who nobody expected to be defeated at elections.

The joy and support for him by the Benue people was palpable, but Ortom simply squandered this glorious opportunity, while veiling his ineptitude in insecurity challenge for a period running into 8 years. To add salt to injury, Ortom abandoned the craft of governance to become a Personal assistant to a popular governor as at then, wherefore they were drinking N50million worth of wine, clicking glasses, gallivanting all around the world, and dancing to “as e dey pain dem, e de sweet us”, while the Benue people where under the weight of Ortom’s knee on their necks, for lack of care, groaning that “we can’t breathe’ so much so that many could not celebrate Christmas as at then, given the unavailability of food. It is too soon to forget, and here is someone defending Ortom! KAI! MAWOAH! This is really unfortunate and sad. But as it is said, the devil also has his diehards.

To this effect, If Benue had listen to the words of wisdom of a renowned politician in 2015, who alluded to the fact that he does not know who will be governor of Benue State as at then, but one thing was certain that he knew, who should not be elected governor of the State. As a people we did not heed to this advice, if we did, Benue State would not have retrogressed by another 8 years under the misnomer offered to Benue by the Ortom ‘Mis-governance’.

On a final note may I ask that, we know the defender of the Benue Valley is a Five-star General, so then what is the rank of the defender of the defender of the Benue Valley? This is just to enable us address him appropriately at our next outing, so that protocol should not be breached.