Yemisi Dada
A two-day training on inclusive participatory Budgeting and Budget tracking for Lagos State, Council Officials and WASHCOM federation from Ikorodu North and Ojodu LCDAs is underway in Ikeja.
The training organized by an NGO WaterAid Nigeria in collaboration with Cummins, PepsiCo foundation and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is to build and strengthen the capacity of participants on processing and tracking of budget to enhance transparency and accountability.
WaterAid Nigeria Lagos Program Head, Dr Alao Adebayo, said the objectives of the training was to ensure those at the community level participate in budget processing to include the needs of the community to ensure, it is captured and implemented in the budget especially in the area of Clean, safe water, clean toilet and good hygiene, WASH.
Dr Adebayo noted that the LCDAs fix the budget year in year out, but stressed that the narrative needs to change to involve more participatory and inclusive for those being governed to feel among governance at their local levels.
While welcoming participants, WaterAid WASHCOM Manager for the CHC project, Mr Bamikole Adegbite emphasized that only inclusive and participatory Budgeting can bring development to the grassroots as well as promote dialogue between community members and government officials about budgetary issues.
“The essence of it is that we are looking at the budget that will bring development to the people, bring development to the grassroots in which everybody is carried along, and also we want the CDCs and WASHCOM and the community to be part of the budgeting process, so that all the community needs are well captured in the budget so that by 2026, going forward we want to see in these two LCDAs as a budget that is robust and address the people’s needs”
Speaking on the basics of Budget, Chairman, Lagos Civil Society Participatory for Development, Mr Ayo Adebusoye, who highlighted the stages of budget process, said there was need to track budget implementation to hold government accountable for visible deliverables.
“One of the things democracy does is to make everybody participate in government and budget is the main tool for development, it is the most important document we have after the constitution and it’s a law, so it very important that all stakeholders’, community members, civil society, government officials, media should be interested in and analysing the budget knowing the particular tools to use to be able to see that their interest are being taken are of, and government is actually giving value for money, so there would be development at the grassroots”
The training which will end tomorrow has in attendance representatives from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Council Managers in Ikorodu North and Ojodu LCDAs, Development partners and the Media.