08 Apr 2008 |
|
The Anambra State Budget Saga In a democratic setting, budgets are collective responsibilities of the executive and the legislature. The executive prepares the budget, the legislature as part of its oversight functions approves it. This is democracy; this is the norm all over the world. But this appears not to be the case in Peter Obi’s Anambra State. Governor Obi wants to harangue the legislature into rubber-stamping his ill prepared budget and when the legislature wants to exercise its oversight functions, hell is let loose. Blackmail and intimidation becomes the order of the day, sound argument looses ground, good fiscal policy is thrown to the dogs because Governor Obi wants his way at all cost. A man who came to power against all odds rather than being a champion of democracy is turning into a demagogue for personal pecuniary reasons. This, in a nutshell is the cause of the current imbroglio in Anambra state with respect to 2008 budget approval. Governor Obi has ran out of ideas, out of sorts, for an office he was and is ill prepared to manage. Rudimentary trading and not sound management is his stuff. A lot of state governments in Nigeria as at date have still not have their budgets approved by their legislature but more importantly, the federal government of Nigeria is still negotiating with the national assembly towards a common ground for the 2008 budget, this should be the case. Otherwise budgets become a mere paper exercise like in Ohakim’s Imo state. President Yar’Adua irrespective of his limitations is exhibiting sound and academic democratic credentials towards the budgetary saga but not Peter Obi. President Yar’Adua has not marshalled his cattle Fulani brethrens into intimidating the national assembly but not so with Governor Obi. Instead of tackling the Anambra legislators intellectually and with superior logic, Peter Obi has gone to the dogs, he has gone mad, he has reduced governance of Anambra state to the gutter. He has resorted to intimidation, to marshalling un-informed and ignorant traders into intimidating the members of the state house of assembly to approve his criminal budget. Who loses at the end of the day but more importantly who gains? Nobody, but Peter Obi but only in the short term. Posterity will prove Odenigbo right, period. It is rather sad that a lot of Anambra indigenes especially those in the Diaspora are so naïve about facts on the ground, especially those indigene’s residing in United States. Perusal of their discussions and articles online confirms just this. It is a pity, it is sad and Governor Obi is basking on this ignorance and perhaps perpetuating it by financing most of the articles authored. The authors know who they are and again posterity will prove me right. Going back to the subject matter of this article, what is actually the situation with regards to Anambra state budget for the fiscal year 2008. For the uninformed, please let us not blame Andy Uba this time around. Yes, we all know Andy’s antecedent and I for one has been amongst his ardent opponent. Readers are invited to visit the website: http://thevoicenewsmagazine.com/newsdetails.asp?id=4&cat_id=19 to see for themselves my stand on the man called Andy Uba. This, my stand still remains the same as at date. The budget has everything to do with Peter Obi’s government not understanding the rudiments of a budgetary process, not understanding governance but most importantly seeking a way to hoodwink and embezzle the money of the good people of Anambra state. This is certainly the case. But luckily for the good people of Anambra state, Peter Obi did not bargain on the intellect and dedication to duty of the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, a US based attorney in the name of Hon Ikenna Mbazulike Amechi. For the uninitiated, Ikenna is not an Andy Uba lackey, he has a much better pedigree than Peter Obi but most importantly by far, by a long mile, more educated than Governor Obi. Ikenna graduated with an LLB from a leading Nigeria University and topped that with an LLM from a leading US University and was living and working comfortably in the US before he chose to come back to Nigeria to help his people. Ikenna is Peter’s nemesis. Ikenna on-behalf of the house was able to decipher Peter’s moves and checkmated him. Governor Obi presented an ill-prepared budget before Ikenna’s committee and when given all the opportunity in this world to defend it resorted to blackmail, for blackmail is his stock-in-trade, the way he use to blackmail custom officers in his days as an importer, the way he is continually blackmailing his deputy, the Rt Hon Dame Virgy Etiaba. As a way out for Governor Obi, Ikenna’s committee has met him halfway, they have re-packaged his budget into what is practical since he and his executive are intellectually capable of doing so. Ikenna’s committee have reduced his budget from Eighty Four Billion Naira, which is impractical (Just like Governor Ohakim’s) to circa Fifty Billion Naira that is somehow albeit practical, but Governor Obi will not accept it and has resorted to cheap blackmail to get his way. This, good people, is the cause of the current situation in Anambra state. For the records and you read it here first, Governor Obi will not be seeking re-election come 2010 for he has achieved his goal in politics, which is to amass as much wealth as he can, which comes at the expense of the electorate. He has done just that. I will once again use this article to remind Governor Obi of his mantra: “The society we are abusing today will take revenge on our children tomorrow”. Peter reflect on this your mantra. Odenigbo Chidi Anyaeche London UK
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.