Akwa Ibom, the 21st state in Nigeria is acknowledged as the highest earner of revenue from the Federation Allocation Account Committee, FAAC, in the country.
The avowal, according to Comrade Iboro Ibara, the Vice Chairman and Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Akwa Ibom State Council, was corroborated by figure bandied by Governor Udom Emmanuel.
“During the presentation of 2020 budget, the Governor said we have received over N165.785 billion from the Federation Account for the period ending August 2019 excluding Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
“If you look at what other states received within the the same period, Abia State received N30.39 billion which is one fifth of Akwa Ibom’s amount; Benue State received N33.24 billion which is one fifth of that. So, the total received by Abia, Benue, Ekiti, Cross River and Kaduna States is less than what Akwa Ibom received over this period. If we are this blessed, why don’t we allow the wealth to trickle down to the citizens.”
Speaking during a panel organised by Inspiration 105.9 FM, Uyo on Saturday, he argued “So, Akwa Ibom State is the highest revenue earner in the country for quite sometime. Apart from Bayelsa State, Akwa Ibom is the highest earner while Bayelsa is higher than Akwa Ibom on the capital basis because the population of Bayelsa is lower than that of Akwa Ibom. On absolute basis, Akwa Ibom receives the highest.”
Commenting on the budget for education sector, he lamented the paltry sum budgeted for education by Akwa Ibom government in 2020 financial year.
According to Ibara, “The allocation to education is the lowest in three years and the allocation to health sector is the lowest in five years. A total of 3.0 per cent of Capital outlay is approved for education sector in 2020 against 3.5 per cent of the capital expenditure proposed for the sector in 2019 and 3.4 per cent in 2018.
“A total of 1.24 per cent for the health sector is the lowest we have had beginning from 2016. This raises cause for serious concern if the governments intends to alleviate poverty and of course you will agree with me that there is poverty in the land.
On provision of free education, he said “What amazes us is that it is not only Akwa Ibom that is implementing free education. Kaduna State is implementing the free education policy as well with the higher primary school pupils.
“According to statistics from National Bureau of Statistics (NBC), the total number of pupils in primary schools in Kaduna State (as at 2017) was 1,420,956 compared to Akwa Ibom’s 824,212. So, Kaduna State receives one quarter of what we receive and is able to do the free education programme with almost 1.5 million pupils and we have less than one million. What are we talking about here?
“So, we should even have free education up to university level given our privileged financial position in terms of revenue,” he added.
…As A’Ibom Budgets N2.5b For Maintenance Of Governor’s Aircraft
Iniobong Ekanem of Policy Alert described “The budget is highly unrealistic, looking at it sector by sector. The education and health sectors were not implemented up to 10 per cent last year.”
Answering questions if the budget favours key areas in terms of allocation, Ekanem said “Government agreed that it did not have enough funds to carry out all its proposed plans and projects for this fiscal year.
“But the budget for Government House, Uyo for increased from 24.1 per cent in 2020 to 27.5 per cent or N33.2 billion in 2020. That is three times of what was allocated to education sector. The education sector is given only N11.45 billion. Let me give you another ludicrous line item. Pilgrimage to the HolyLand is allocated N1.2 billion.
“Meanwhile, the allocation for Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives is N700 million across the state. The Ministry of Special Duties which is to carry out the Ecumenical Centre got increase from N39.5 billion in 2019 to N43.4 billion or 93 per cent in 2020. Health got N13.5 billion in 2019 but is N5.7 billion or 134 per cent in 2020; Health sector was allocated N15.6 billion in 2019 but is reduced by 204 per cent or N4.98 billion. Maintenance of the official state aircraft is allocated N2.5 billion.”
On his part, Inibehe Effiong, bemoaned “Part of the problem in Akwa Ibom, unfortunately, we seem to allow the government to detect the narrative, but it should be the citizens who should determine what the conversation should be. This is the governor who said clearly and publicly when we came to challenge the reasonableness of that project. He said the centre would be funded by Akwa Ibom people and those who want to donate to it. We said if it is a private venture, what is the business of government in commissioning it? Why should it have a budgetary provision? Let me ask: Is the Akwa Ibom governor preparing the people to go to Heaven? Is it the responsibility of the governor? When I was coming here, a street I passed through, I could not count the number of churches.
Effiong who is a human rights lawyer observed “The problem of Akwa Ibom is not spiritual. When a child is hungry, you cannot ask him to pray and fast because that will make the child to be satisfied. It is not witchcraft is responsible for the bad roads. Is it witchcraft that is making Akwa Ibom Water Corporation not to work? We did not elect the governor to be a prayer warrior. Bringing money to send some people to go for pilgrimage, for what? Not everybody in Akwa Ibom is a Christian. Some people are atheists. We cannot adopt any state religion as state religion.
“And we have the education in the state in which a credible media organization in the country investigated and came to the conclusion that the sector is in comatose. This is the sector that will determine the future of this state, yet it is grossly underfunded. But you know my thinking: this is deliberate. Keeping the people uneducated is part of the policy of government. You know why? An educated mind is a liberated mind and a liberated mind cannot be imprisoned and a liberated man cannot walk to Government House to stay under the sun to collect N1,000.
“The only way they do not want to fund education is that their children are in private schools, they own the private schools and they are not victims of the collapse of the public schools. You know why it pains me: I am a product of public education from primary, secondary to university. I had never attended any private school,” he submitted.
