FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned that snakes, termites, monkeys, rodents and other mysterious animals must not be allowed to swallow the $1.07 billion earmarked for the health sector in the 2025 budget proposal.
Also, in a fresh move to curb sleaze, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of the Initiative for Leadership and Economic Watch in Nigeria have expressed their desire to team up with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on monitoring of the budget at national and sub-national levels to ensure optimal performance.
In a statement he personally signed, yesterday, Atiku noted that bizarre claims of animals swallowing public money were rampant in recent years without any attempt by the relevant authorities to investigate the claims or punish the culprits.
“Against the backdrop of dwindling resources that have been exacerbated by the withdrawal of support in certain areas of our healthcare services, it is important that every kobo budgeted for the health sector has to be maximally utilised.
“To this end, the Federal Government has to be deliberate about putting mechanisms in place for public audit and accountability in its $1.07 billion budgetary appropriation in the health sector,” Atiku said.
The former VP specifically queried the government for not providing comprehensive information on how it planned to expend over $1 billion in the primary health sector.
He noted that while healthcare, especially the primary sector, “deserves rapid investment to promote access to quality and affordable health services to Nigerians, it will be immoral of the government not to provide extensive details” of how the money allotted for the purpose would be dispensed.
“We have read that the Federal Government has a plan to expend a whopping $1.07 billion in the primary health sector. This amount is in addition to the N2.48 trillion, which had earlier been proposed for the sector in the initial draft of the budget.
“This development gets even more troubling when the government equally announced that the $1.07 billion it is adding to the health sector at the sub-national level was mainly sourced through foreign loans and a fraction of it being provided through an international donor agency”, Atiku added.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general election said the failure of the Federal Government not to commit to a single physical infrastructure in expanding the budgetary provision smacked of fraud.
“Undoubtedly, the Tinubu administration has failed woefully in the health sector because of the poor funding of the sector. The major diseases in the primary health sector remain malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
“If Tinubu’s administration meant well in its claim to prioritise the health of Nigerians, his government should explain how it plans to spend this intervention fund in addressing these diseases in the primary health sector.”
THE CSOs made their partnership intention known during a courtesy visit to the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede at the headquarters in Abuja.
Speaking on behalf of the leaders of the CSOs, Splendor Agbonkpolor said the groups came together to operate as a committee, basically to focus on budget monitoring and implementation in the country.
“The budget is our major concern. Our mandate is to monitor budget implementation; to assess budget effectiveness, identify budget gaps, advocate for reforms, promote transparency, provide evidence-based reports, collaborate with stakeholders, and support capacity building,” he said.
Agbonkpolor further said the CSOs decided to team up with the EFCC “because we believe that the fight against corruption is not a one-man show. It is not a one-agency business, not a sole business of the EFCC. The EFCC needs Nigerians to assist it in terms of reportage and information. The committee believes that corruption starts with procurement. If corruption is tackled from the point of procurement down to the point of implementation, at the end of the day, the money that would be stolen from the budget would be minimised.
“In our work, over time, we discovered that despite the huge money received by contractors for projects, whenever we get to the site, nothing would be there. If we go on-site and we see that a project that was supposed to be on the ground is not on the ground, we will come to the EFCC and say, ‘Look at this project, look at the amount of money that has been paid, but there is nothing on the ground.’ So, it makes the work easier for the EFCC to just go there and investigate.”
Olukoyede, on his part, expressed gratitude to the CSOs for showing deep interest in seeing that Nigeria moves forward, adding, “We can only achieve that by collaboration. I have been saying it and I will continue to say it that fighting corruption is not the work of law enforcement or anti-corruption agencies alone, and that is why I am so much in love with your initiative. I can guarantee you all our support. When I see civil society with us, it gives me confidence that we are succeeding.
“We are all victims of this crime we are talking about. So, we are ready to work with you. Budget implementation and monitoring are very key. We will ensure that our collaboration with you is strong.”