Our Upward Mobility

Address By Governor Abdullahi Adamu at the presentation of the 2004 appropriation bill to the state House of Assembly Lafia, Wednesday, December 17, 2003

In accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we come before this honourable house this morning to lay before it the state appropriation bill for the fiscal year 2004, christened Budget of Sustained Development. For us, this brief ceremony is not an annual constitutional ritual but a solemn duty, which we perform with humility before God and gratitude to our people who bestowed on us the grave duty of being their servants. We speak to you this morning as one dutiful servant of the people to another in the faithful service of our masters: the people.

Some of us are new servants; most of us are old servants. But for all of us, the honest and faithful discharge of our duty is our public obligation. It is both a duty we freely chose to do and it is a duty we must do to justify the people's confidence in us as elective office holders in the executive and legislative arms of the state government.

Under our constitution, the government of this state would be both incomplete and illegal without its other two arms - the legislature and the judiciary. It does not require the knowledge of biology for anyone to appreciate the function of two arms in the life of all primates, particularly human beings. We underline the obvious fact: this honourable house and its distinguished members are a critical arm of our administration. Let your deliberations on the budget we place before you this morning be guided by your individual pledge that this arm of government shall be employed at all times in the service of the government and the people of Nasarawa State.

 In our humble but informed opinion, an appropriation bill should do more than show the revenue and expenditure profile of government in a given year. More importantly, it should tell us where we are, where we want to go and how we intend to get there and why. This is the philosophical underpinning of our budget. The sectoral allocations conclusively show our priority in descending order for 2004. They show in concrete terms, the height and the breadth of our ambition for a meaningful development of every inch of Nasarawa State. We remain committed to rural development as a deliberate policy of empowering our people where it matters most - the grassroots. Our resolve to transform our rural areas remains unshaken. In the New Year, we will continue with our policy of completing on-going projects such as rural water and electricity supply, the construction of inter-and intra-local government roads, etc. But as we solemnly promised in our inaugural speech, this policy will not deny any communities their rightful entitlement to the essential amenities. Without prejudice to this new policy, we shall continue to meet the needs of our people at all levels.

  Mr. Speaker, all our budgets since 1999 have faithfully deferred to the people as the centrepiece of our administration. The 2004 budget is no different. It follows the beaten path in our exciting journey to the state of our dreams as a people. We have named it the Budget of Sustained Development for reasons that must be fairly obvious. Our primary objective in the 2004 budget is to sustain the momentum we have generated in the state in the last four and half years of democracy. This is a logical follow up to the 2003 budget of re-invigoration and transformation. That budget envisaged an expenditure of fifteen billion; seven hundred and ninety-six million, seven hundred and thirty-one thousand, two hundred and twenty Naira (N15,796,731,220.00). However, during the year, we found it necessary to ask this honourable house to approve a supplementary budget of six hundred and seventy one million, fifty-five thousand and six Naira (N671, 055,006.00) for the last quarter of the year. Our total budget for 2003, therefore, came to N16.467 billion.

That figure did not represent cash in hand for the government. It was what we expected to get, all things being equal. As it turned out, all things were not equal. As at the end of November, our total receipt came to N11.466 billion. We could not meet the target for our internally generated revenue. We collected only N494.21 million from that sector. There was, clearly, a short fall. But in keeping with our repeated promise to make every kobo in our treasury count, none of our social or economic development projects suffered a major set back as a consequence of the shortfall in our anticipated revenue. Prudent management of our lean financial resources remains the cardinal principle of our accountability. We will always uphold that principle.

During the year, some developments at the national level had unhealthy consequences for all of us. The 12.5 per cent increase in the salaries of civil servants as well as the increases in the pump price of petroleum products brought new pressure to bear on our financial resources. These developments were not anticipated and were, therefore, not taken into account in the 2003 budget. Although we sought for and obtained the approval of the house for a supplementary budget to cover the expenditure in the last quarter of the year, the bulk of that budget went into recurrent expenditure. We believe that our civil servants deserve to be adequately remunerated. After all, they are the engine of the public service without which a government is only a useless wagon. It must be for the love of civil servants that we spend 75 per cent of our revenue on them. But we must remind ourselves that this expenditure pattern leaves very little money for capital development. Our state is not alone in this predicament. It has forced the federal government to monetise the fringe benefits of federal civil servants. Whether this will dramatically reduce the cost of running government remains to be seen but we too must begin to think of some creative ways of addressing this problem so that while we adequately reward the civil servants, the prosecution of capital development projects does not suffer unduly.

Mr. Speaker, the 2004 appropriation bill being placed before you this morning envisages a capital and recurrent expenditure profile of N20.510 billion. A cursory look at both the 2003 and the proposed 2004 budgets would give the impression that our state has become progressively richer. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true in absolute terms. Our fiscal situation has not dramatically changed. We still depend largely on our share from the federation account. In the proposed budget, for instance, our share from the federation account accounts for twelve billion Naira of the anticipated total revenue of about twenty billion Naira. Only the princely sum of N1.210 billion will come from our internally generated revenue. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is rather uncomfortable for us as a government and as a people. We repeat our repeated warning: Our state cannot afford to remain almost totally dependent on the federation account. We must rise up to the challenges of improved internally generated revenue. We cannot attain the height of our collective ambition with the millstone of poverty strapped to our feet. We believe we can free our feet and attain the height. Let us resolve to do so now. We will overhaul the machinery of internal revenue collection in the New Year for purposes of accountability. It has become clear to us that the state is losing a substantial part of its internally generated revenue to certain malpractices in the system. Obviously, some selfish individuals who put their selfish ends above the common interests of the state, are exploiting existing loopholes to cheat the state and its people. We shall find and seal up all the loopholes and put these unpatriotic elements in our midst out of their dirty business.

  We have said this before and we say it again here. No government anywhere, no matter how rich, can do everything for the people. The primary purpose of government is to help the people to help themselves. In the recent past, the people of this country were lulled into a false belief that government had unlimited resources to meet all their needs. They created the impression that the payment of income and poll taxes was an unnecessary burden on the people. Their objective was not to help the people but merely ride the crest waves of populism. In the end, they left the people holding the short end of the stick.

 We cannot sustain that illusion any more. For government to make meaningful progress, the people must be allowed and encouraged to perform their civic duties by making their contributions, where necessary, to the public treasury. It is in this regard that we wish to announce to this honourable house our decision to introduce poll tax in the state next year. This measure may not go down well with some people but it has become necessary for two important reasons. Firstly, it will help our internal revenue generation and thus enable us to prosecute more people-oriented development projects. Secondly, it will help our people to appreciate their role as active partners in our forward march.
As this honourable house is fully aware, when we assumed duty on May 29, 1999, we took a series of determined steps to promote our industrial and agricultural investment potentials. We convened an economic summit in 2000 and 2001 to open our doors to potential local and foreign investors. Both summits were attended by curious local and foreign investors. 

However, given their initial fear in the stability of our democracy, potential foreign investors adopted a wait and see attitude. In the circumstances, we had to embark on some industrial development projects as part of our efforts to boost the economic development of the state. The bag factory and the soap factory, both in Akwanga, the beef processing plant in Masaka, the sesame seed oil factory in Doma and the international market, which was begun by our predecessor became the first industrial and commercial development projects in the state. Our objective in setting up these industries was not for government to own or run them. Given the poor record of government companies in this country and given the conventional wisdom of removing government from commercial and industrial enterprises, it would be unwise for us to tread where the angels have since deserted. Our objective was to act as a catalyst and shore up investor confidence in the industrial development of the state. We have now achieved that primary objective. In the New Year, we will sell these industries and the international market at Karu to private investors. The proceeds from the sale of these enterprises will be used to fund other projects and services such as the Lafia central market.

We hasten to assure the people of this state that government will ensure that their interests of the people of this state, such as employment opportunities, are fully protected in the privatised enterprises.
Mr. Speaker, it would be unfair to bore this honourable house by reading the details of the sectoral allocations. However, it is pertinent to point out that we have proposed N8.264 billion and N12.245 as recurrent and capital expenditures respectively. One of the main features of our capital expenditure is the prosecution of the independent hydro-electric power project on the Farin Ruwa River in Farin Ruwa local government area. This important project was initially estimated to cost N3 billion on based on our projected power generation of five megawatts. Further studies have since shown that we shall need to generate twenty megawatts if we are to meet our energy needs. Obviously, therefore, the cost will certainly exceeded the initial estimate of three billion Naira.

 This honourable house has already passed a resolution authorising the state government to source for the fund from the capital market.  We wish to report that although we are making progress in this regard it is not easy to obtain fund from the money market. The cost of securing the fund is rather high. We are exploring all possible avenues to find a comparatively cheaper fund for the project. One of the options we are exploring is loan syndication by a consortium of banks. We shall keep this distinguished house fully informed of our progress.

Our hydro-electric project is the first of its kind under taken by a state government anywhere in this country. As our dear brothers in the South-East would say, this is a parrot's feather in the cap of our development efforts. We will continue to count on the support of the distinguished members of this honourable house in the prosecution of this vital project on which the future industrial, commercial and social development of this state squarely rests.

 During the year, the state government secured $5.7 million loan from EXIM Bank and guaranteed by the Bank of the North for health delivery services. The loan has not yet been drawn down although we commenced its monthly servicing since July this year. Our two-pronged approach of preventive and curative services is paying handsome dividends.

In summary, the 2004 budget is designed to achieve the following objectives:

(i) To sustain the momentum of our development thrusts;
(ii) To build a more disciplined, virile and productive civil service
(iii) To accelerate the development of the rural areas
(iv) To stimulate increased food and cash crops production

 Mr. Speaker, Sir, Honourable Members, despite the progress we have made in the development of our state in the last fifty-five months, we must remind ourselves that our ultimate destination is still a long way off. Today, we must renew our collective pledge to serve the people. Twelve months from now when the 2004 budget has run its full course, let there be incontrovertible evidence that we have been as good as our words. If we lead right the people will follow us. As leaders, we must lead. Our decisions and actions may not always be popular but they must always be devoid of selfish interests. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted by irrelevancies and people seeking relevance.

This honourable house has carved a niche for itself as a responsible and people-oriented legislature. We have no reasons to believe that it will do anything to detract from this enviable record. We place on record our gratitude to the speaker, the principal officers and all members of this distinguished house for their support and co-operation.

Mr. Speaker, we are all in the business of running a successful government in the state together. No arm of government can go it alone. Let service to our people, therefore, continue to be our unwavering resolve and indeed our watchword. It must guide what we think, say and do always. It is in the same spirit that we call on the Honourable House to approach its deliberations on the 2004 appropriation bill.
Thank you and God bless.