Why Nigerians should participate in budget process, by Abbas

House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas has urged more Nigerians to participate in the budget process.

He said this would deepen the nation’s democratic governance and strengthen public financial management.

Abbas said this at a citizens’ town hall on the 2024 Budget and Appropriation Process organised by the House Committee of Appropriations and the Programmes Coordinating Unit of the Office of the Speaker yesterday in Abuja.

The town hall was supported by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL).

The Speaker said the House had taken the lead in engaging the people in the budget process.

He urged all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to do the same.

Abbas said the Green Chamber would review the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007 to strengthen existing provisions in order to improve access to information and public consultation in the course of the budget cycle.

The Speaker said the House would amend the FRA to explicitly require and define public participation.

According to him, the town hall provides a platform for direct engagement between legislators and citizens, focusing on matters related to the national budget.

Abbas said this is crucial to enhancing the transparency of government spending.

“It also allows the public to be more informed about how public funds are to be used and, by so doing, build greater trust in government institutions. More importantly, however, this town hall will allow the National Assembly to understand citizens’ needs better and explore ways to address them through the budget,” he said.

The Speaker promised that the House would sustain the initiative, adding: “We believe this process should start before the budget is presented to the National Assembly. This is critical to ensuring that the budget becomes the people’s budget.”

“We expect that the 2025 budget will be discussed at the constituency level to ensure greater inclusion and engagement with diverse stakeholders at the grassroots level.”

He said the relevance of the interface is best understood within the larger context of diminished public trust in government institutions in Nigeria and other African countries.

Abbas said: “The Afrobarometer study across 36 African countries in 2014/2015 with the theme: Do Trustworthy Institutions Matter? found that people express more trust in informal institutions, such as religious and traditional leaders, than in the formal executive agencies of the state.

“Public trust in parliaments and electoral institutions was lowest across 36 countries. Similarly, the Open Government Partnership found that Nigeria provides ‘few’ opportunities for the public to engage in the budget process.

“In 2017, it ranked Nigeria 13 out of 100 points in public participation. This poor ranking was due to the dominant role played by the political elite and government bureaucrats in the budgeting process. While some progress has been made since 2017, many traditional challenges remain. The most notable is the absence of functional government mechanisms that show how citizens’ input informs the budget-making process.

“This town hall represents a major step in changing the narrative. As indicated in our Legislative Agenda, we are the People’s House. As such, we firmly commit to strengthening public engagement and seeking inputs into the budget process, starting with the pre-budget statement, Executive budget proposal, budget debate through public hearings in the legislature, and implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the budget.