Whatever the case, the questions by the average man remains, “How can this Budget build our future?”. The poor, the women, the children especially the Almajiris who depends on begging to survive everyday, without a place to call their home, no future, no voice and no vision of anything good in sight.
The budget proposal was presented by Malam Dikko Umaru Radda PhD, CON, the Executive Governor of Katsina State to the state House of Assembly with pomp, excitement and hope that it will be the second version of “Building your Future” budget. The former was tagged “Building your Future I” the current one is called “Building your Future II”.
The Governor thanked the House of Assembly for their support so far, the house of Assembly on the other hand commended the governor for his unwavering efforts in making life better for the people of Katsina while the invited guests cheer up with rounds of applause as the presentation progressed.
KatsinaMirror was there to monitor the proceedings which began around 2 pm on the 25th of November 2024 and ends around 4 pm held at Justice Mamman Nasir House, Katsina.
The venue was packed full but people outside were more than those inside the chamber of the House of Assembly. Outside, people were waiting for those coming out of the chamber to dole out money to them but nothing as people that came out left just with the excitement of being privileged to witness this once in a year event of budget proposal presentation.
The fact is that budget presentation is not a place for sharing money, the governor did not go in to distribute money in the house of Assembly but to present a budget proposal on how we are going to get money and spend the money as a State.
The people outside started shouting foul when they did not see money flying around using unprintable languages which are rather unnecessary at such a time like this because they were angry since an hungry man is an angry man.
But, relating with some individuals among them, their question is, “How can this budget build our future? We get nothing for waiting and most likely we will continue to wait to get nothing for nothing”.
They complained that, when you wake up, there is no food, you go out, there is no work, you come back home, there is no light. Can we survive? Not to talk of imagining a future that may not exist at all to build. The survival of an average person is bleak and so many are hopeless of any good thing happening soon.
Experts had lend their voices into the budget presentation that it is indeed a good one because priorities were given to Education, Agriculture and Livestock development which tops the list.
Although some argued that Agriculture and Livestock Development should be number one above education because people are hungry but this administration opinion is that it is better to empower people with education so that they’ll know how to live and survive in whatever circumstances as expressed in our local parlance that, it is better to teach people to catch fish that to give them fish to eat.
Capacity development has been a major focus of this administration as the governor himself is a PhD holder in Agriculture & Rural Sociology, but still yet, so many people remain incapacitated after almost one year of “Building your Future I” budget that promised a better future for all.
There are people who are asking the questions about “OTHERS” in the budget that gulp almost 50% of the budget, precisely 42.6%.
Whatever the case, the questions by the average man remains, “How can this Budget build our future?”. The poor, the women, the children especially the Almajiris who depends on begging to survive everyday, without a place to call their home, no future, no voice and no vision of anything good in sight.
While no where is safe for people in nations that are war thorn, there is likewise nothing that gives hope to a people who are vulnerable with a bleak future that is already perceived thorn apart as in “Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe.
Meanwhile, proposal of a budget is not the actual budget because the house of assembly will have to work on it to draft out the budget that will be signed into law by the executive.
This is the time for groups to mount pressure on the house of Assembly to do due diligence in engaging people with wealth of ideas to make sure they come out with a budget that can build the future that is promising as proposed, or using a better phrase ‘repair the future that is already ruined.’
Pressure groups should not build up to cause mayhem, criticize or throw tantrums but engage representatives on the needs suggesting the best way forward in tackling the current challenges staring us all in the face.
Sell ideas to them, show them their errors in a civilized way and constructively criticize them to open their eyes to new ideas that may be good for the betterment of all of us since we have already voted them in to represent and not considering calling them back or impeaching them soon.
The House of Assembly members on the other hand should grow above the era of just being a rubber stamp to an assembly of critical thinking representatives that owes allegiance to the betterment of Katsina people in general.
Too many people are not reading the budget because they see it as an official documents that serves for record purposes only with no realistic agenda in it considering the past budget performances that brought no improvement to anyone’s life.
Local government autonomy is what many consider as solution to our current situation to help in distribution of wealth to make the budget build our decaying rural communities to discourage banditry and other social vices that halts agricultural practices in the remote areas arguing that everything will continue to revolve around except policies like local government autonomy are entrenched.
Every leader and elected officials will need to play their roles leaving no stone unturned. No one should try to do it all alone abrogating responsibilities to self because a tree cannot make a forest. Moreso, greed will make this budget to build nothing but economic failure.
Many officials are often incapacitated and frustrated when they see things not going as budgeted causing many to play politics with lives that the budget is supposed to build leading to corruption, sabotage and other destructive manoeuvering that pulls down the economy to a large extent.
However, the governor has promised to do everything in his capacity to make life better for the people of Katsina State, those asking the question, “How can this Budget build our future?” should wait for a second chance to build another future from scratch since the budget is titled “BUILDING YOUR FUTURE II”.
femiores@katsinamirror.ng
