By Ahmed Attahir, Gusau
Zamfara state governor, Bello Mohammed has described those operating civil society organizations (CSOs) in the state as ignoramuses, for accusing him of signing the 2022 budget “secretly”.
A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media, Communications and Public Enlightenment to the governor, said the CSOs’ accusation was a desperate attempt to crave relevance, “by ignorantly accusing the state government for what they thought was a breach in procedure over the 2022 appropriation bill.”
The statement added that the appropriation bill is “a document guiding the spending of public funds to be monitored by the lawfully assigned mechanisms stipulated by law.”
“The medium that carried the story said the representatives of the groups described that budget is a public document but is now personalised by the Muhammad administration.
“At first, one tend to be at a loss if the sources of this story are at all knowledgeable and indeed representatives of who they claim to represent.
“In terms of procedure, any lay man knows that a budget is prepared by the executive and presented to the legislature for approval.
“It is the duty of the legislature to later conduct budget defence by all MDAs included in the budget which was duly done over the past two weeks and all the procedures required to pass the bill was completed before the House presented it to the Governor for assent.
“As required by the law, all those who are expected to attend the signing of the budget into law were in attendance.
“As for the budget was signed into law late in the evening, we wonder if the law specified any time of the day for such function to happen”.
“While signing the budget, the entire legislators led by the Speaker, were present at the ceremony. Similarly, the entire Executive Council members of the state government, including the Secretary to the State Government, the Head of Service, the Chief of Staff and all Commissioners including that of Finance and Budget and Economic Planning, were also present.
“One therefore, wonders how the issue of secrecy crops up in the whole of this procedure.
“As a reminder, these misguided accusers of the state governor should know that an appropriation bill presented to His Excellency for signing into Law is not a public document in the manner they claim, but a document guiding the spending of public funds to be monitored by the lawfully assigned mechanisms stipulated by law.”
