As the winds of austerity blows, Nigerians eagerly await the 2016 Budget Approval

February brings with it arguably the most celebrated day of love, Valentines, but that love might not be extended to the federal government of Nigeria and President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as many Nigerians are soured at the current state of affairs.

February 15, counts 262 days i.e. 10 months since a new government came into power for Africa’s most populous nation, 10 months, that many argue hasn’t transpired to “change”.

The current increase in electricity tariffs [45%], a possible increase in VAT, declining oil prices, the exchange rate of the naira on the forex and most importantly, the 2016 budget that is yet to be approved, has the masses wondering where the country is heading.

We present to you a timeline of some events shaping Nigerians reactions and Buhari’s tenure: –

• May, 2015 – President Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s 6th elected Head of State
• November, 2015 – President Buhari announces list of Ministers [24], with Ministers of State to make up remaining portfolios
• December, 2015 – Barely a month after Ministers resume leadership positions at ministries, President Buhari submits 2016 Appropriation Bill
• January, 2016 – #MissingBudget; President Buhari submits corrected 2016 budget
• January/February 2016 – Controversies arise following 2016 Budget approval as Ministers cannot defend the budget e.g. Health Budget
• February, 2016 – Senate President, Bukola Saraki Code of Conduct Tribunal [CCT] trial resumes after Supreme Court dismisses it [Opinions are that the head of the National Assembly might be too embroiled in his matters to attend to that of the State]

Well, it is necessary to note and give credit to the National Assembly for spotting errors in Nigeria’s 2016 budget as seen below:

• Lai Mohammed, Minister for Culture flatly rejected any knowledge of N368 Million in the budget item of the Ministry of Information for the procurement of computers;
• Ministry of Solid Minerals To Update Website With N795 Million;

Some other funny [well suspicious] figures most Nigerians will be watching to see if they get approved include: –

• The State House Rent – N30.8 million [is the Aso Rock for rent?]
• Office Furniture for Ministry of Power, Works & Housing HQ – N1.2 billion
• Purchase of Photocopying Machine by APCON – N6.5 million

Whether it’s the revised version, Minister’s version or Budget Mafia’s version that is finally approved, we do hope for immediate action as many local communities who most likely would not read this post live in abject poverty. Families are living a hand to mouth existence, with no electricity, water, nor adequate health facilities.

If the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, and his Ministry complete the building and upgrading of at least 10,000 Primary Health Care Centres [PHCs] across the entire 774 local government areas of Nigeria in the next one year, millions of Nigerians living in communities will reduce approaching secondary and tertiary health institutions with common ailments like headache, malaria, cough and catarrh.

If the supporting announcement by the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, for the ambitious project across Nigeria ensures its achievement, then overcrowding at the tertiary hospitals would reduce.

Ehanire said that the architectural plan of healthcare in Nigeria were 4: Preventive, Promotional, Curative and Rehabilitation.

The preventive aspect entails safe water, sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and immunisation which many local communities lack and existing infrastructure are not working.

Getting down to it …

The Total Proposed Health Budget stands at 257.7 billion naira from 221.7 billion [a 16% increase]

Out of which the total proposed for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency [NPHCDA] is 17.7 billion naira [It is the assumption of the author of this article that the NPHCDA would be have a major stake in this project]

Well, according to the budget for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, there is no proposed spending for the upgrading and building of the PHCs as capital spending revolves arounds developing a national logistics supply; and procurement of vaccines and devices.

Visiting the website of the agency [http://www.nphcda.gov.ng/], reveals no information about Primary Health Centres, which should raise a few eyebrows given that the project is supposed to be completed within the year 2016.

So I return to where I began this post “If”

Also, if the funds are eventually released [from who knows where] and you want to probably get involved to support the completion of the project, you could activate us to track spending.

If …

For Further Reading

2016 Appropriation Bill – Budget Office of the Federation

News article – FG to build 10,000 PHCs in 774 councils – Minister

It was apparent that everyone sitted in the Acacia Room of the Ladi Kwali Hall in Sheraton Hotels & Towers, Abuja were interested in the reason for the event – Nigeria had lost 3.3 billion dollars from tax holidays given to the NLNG consortium made up of Shell, Total, Eni and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC].

How did this oil rich nation lose so much from tax, when 70% of all its previous budgets were financed from the profits of crude export?

Honourable Herman Hembe, representing Vandeikya/Konshisha federal constituency, Benue State noted that with the global crises arising from falling oil prices, it was time that executive and national assembly revisited policies and laws that granted corporate bodies tax exemptions in Nigeria

In her welcome address, Ms. Ojobo Atuluku, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria pointed out that tax incentives in developing countries was costing 138 billion dollars yearly. Citing the current research undertaken by the organisation, Nigeria’s current loss of 3.3 billion dollars was equivalent to twice the national education budget and thrice the healthcare budget in 2015.

More statistics shared showed that 10 million children were not schooling and 15 out of 100 children die before turning 5; the leakages in the system could have been put to better use to uplift the citizenry.

She challenged the federal government of Nigeria on the current tax culture and calling for collaboration of the country with other countries to end harmful regional tax completion.

The launch of the report also featured a panel discussion between ActionAid Nigeria, government officials in the Federal Revenue Inland Service [FIRS] and staff from the Ministry of Finance.

You can Download the Report here

Patients experience fever, nausea, diarrhoea, meningitis and in severe cases bleeding from orifices such as the eyes and the eyes, a complication that leads to death. The mortality rate is steadily climbing, at last count it stood at 44% and various news reports have it that the fever has shown up in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory and 11 states in Nigeria. 43 deaths have now been recorded in Nigeria.

Lassa fever or Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus and first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria. It is similar to ebola, in the presentation of symptoms by patients especially bleeding via openings.

The first case of the current outbreak in Nigeria was reported from Bauchi state in November, 2015.

Lassa frequently infects people in West Africa. It results in 300,000 to 500,000 cases annually and causes about 5,000 deaths each year. The virus is probably transmitted by contact with the faeces or urine of animals accessing grain stores in residences.

Transmission from person to person has also been established, which presents a risk for healthcare workers. Though no cases have been documented via sexual contact, it is imperative to note that the virus is excreted in urine for 3-9 weeks and in semen for three months.

Control of the Mastomys rodent population is impractical, so measures are limited to keeping rodents out of homes and food supplies, as well as maintaining effective personal hygiene. Gloves, masks, laboratory coats, and goggles are advised while in contact with an infected person.

Prevention of Lassa fever relies on promoting good hygiene in communities to discourage rodents from entering homes. Family members should always be careful to avoid contact with blood and body fluids while caring for sick persons. In health-care settings, staff should always apply standard infection prevention and control precautions when caring for patients, regardless of their presumed diagnosis.

The Minister for Health, Professor Isaac Adewole has advised healthcare workers seeing a patient suspected to have Lassa fever to immediately contact the State Epidemiologist in the state ministry of health or call the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Federal Ministry of Health using the following numbers: 08093810105, 08163215251, 08031571667 and 08135050005.

An estimated 51 million Nigerians may be at risk of contracting the disease especially those in rural communities with the annual number of deaths put at 58,330.

For further reading, check this United Nations Fact Sheet

Ever imagined there is a community in the Federal Capital Territory that never had access to electricity? You will be shocked to discover there is, and that community is Shere which is under the Bwari Area Council.

Shere is a community with an estimated population of about 3000 people in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory. For a community that is located just few minutes away from the Federal Capital, one would expect it to have access to basic amenities, but unfortunately this community never had access to electricity in its almost 200 years of existence, the roads are bad, no access to clean water, ill-equipped health care facilities, high rate of illiteracy and school dropouts.

Going to Shere from Bwari, you will be welcomed by abandoned road and power projects; upon arrival in Shere, your body will be covered in dust after surviving the 25 minutes bike ride on the bumpy roads. You will find a dilapidated building with the roofs torn off by the wind over 2 years ago serving as their health clinic; 14 classes, most of them with half roofings or no roofs accommodating over 1,000 students; 2 toilets serving over 14 teachers and 1,000 students; a well filled with sand-colored water which serves as the major water source of the community. That is the reality of Shere community; a community not far from the Federal Capital but far away from advancement and civilisation.

Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2016; as we slowly and sadly leave the holidays [which I enjoyed, hope you did] and kick-start the year let’s look at what trends are expected to shape Nigeria socio-economically as many people expect the “change” mantra of the Buhari’s administration to enter full gear.

January kicks off with a 50 kobo [N0:50K] decrease in the pump price of petrol, making the black gold retail at the price of N86:50k for Africa’s most populous nation, a change that many Nigerians feel has no major effect and a change many petrol stations are not complying to.

Budget: The 2016 federal budget was presented before a joint session of the National Assembly last year which was proposed at N6.08 trillion, and was dubbed a non-oil budget as only 13% of the budget outlay is expected to come from oil.
The situation could get harder than envisaged as the International Monetary Fund [IMF] has said that crude oil prices may slump to as low as $20 per barrel in 2016.

With Nigeria expected to produce 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2016 and sell at $38 per barrel, the country expects to generate $83.6 million per day in 2016 – $30.514 billion in the year 2016.
Going by IMF’s predictions at $20, Nigeria would generate $44 million per day in 2016, amounting to $16.060 billion in the year.

This would mean that Nigeria would get at least 47.4 percent less revenue from oil than what is already projected
The debate in past years has always been how close the benchmark should be to the price of crude. Excess crude account was created in the good old years to warehouse the difference between benchmark and actual price. This is no longer the case as Government now has to plan with expectation that actual crude price will rise back to benchmark.

Perhaps, balancing the exchange rate amy help cushion the effect. Official exchange rate is currently N197 to a Dollar.

Budget 2016

Security: The deadline given to the Army by President Buhari for the insurgency in most of the North East passed and it was celebrated that victory had been accomplish; hopefully it would be the roadmap to a peaceful year in terms of security save a little hiccups here and there.
With faith lost by the populace in the Nigerian Police Force, we can only hope that hope is rekindled in 2016 as the police are first responders to issues of domestic insecurity and violence.

Justice: Moving on, the performance of Buhari’s administration would be a topic for every occasion as issues surrounding Supreme Court verdicts for Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Taraba states governorship elections being expected in the first quarter of this year, it is envisaged that whatever becomes the outcome would alter the political configuration of the affected states. Not to forget the legal confusion in Kogi State after the demise of late Prince Abubakar Audu who was the running candidate of the ruling APC party.

Corruption: The President’s stance on corruption is also going to be tested given his commitment to stamp the menace and the general that he is a “no-nonsense” person.
Issues like “Dasukigate”, the scandal facing the former National Security Adviser Lieutenant Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and others over the embezzlement of 2.2 billion Dollars, the Hyde Park Lane saga facing former Minster of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Maduekwe and many more cases that Nigerians are itching to hear.
It is interesting to note that more than just hearing about the gazillions that are looted from the nation’s purse, citizens are clamouring for stringent convictions.

Unemployment: Finally, N5,000 stipends to be paid to unemployed youth as promised during the campaign of Mr. President and the growing state of idle youth. A policy that many analysts view as one that said in the heat of the moment.
Concerns are centred around how feasible is the policy and what baseline data would be used to assess the number of unemployed youth [for a nation that has 70% of its population leaving below the poverty line]

With the harmattan in full swing, it’s never been a better time to put on your shades, buy some popcorn and watch the drama unfold daily. Happy New Year & God Bless Nigeria.

Would it not be “okay” if the Nigeria National Assembly have 36 members in the upper and lower house, while it coordinates with the State house of Assembly members? and if you are still wondering where Nigeria stands amongst the league of democratic government, the #presidentialmediachat that President Muhammadu Buhari kickstarted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015, just a day before the end of the year, sums it all up, and not just that, it gave directions on the functions of the pillars of democracy. The 2 hours chat left me imagining the number of sacrifices the citizens will have to make before the 170 million Nigerians can achieve the USD 82,763 GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) that Singapore currently enjoys.

So if citizens are ready to sacrifice, what sacrifice will the legislative arm make? With 115 billion Naira appropriated for the legislative arm in 2016, and in it, was a purported 4.7 billion Naira car purchase that was justified by the Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume! Might be ridiculous, I guess?Certainly, we would not need a prophet to tell us Nigeria doesn’t need this expensive legislative arm, however it has been argued that the Nigerian legislative arm enjoys the least salary and allowances amongst the league of countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Philippines and Singapore.This argument would have been justified if the Human Development Index of Nigeria is well better than these countries.

Truth be told, we cannot measure up to them, and our GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) cannot substantiate such argument, so why would it not be right that we should run a part -time legislative arm and use the amount saved to invest in teacher training, or provide befitting living environment for health attendants that has turned ghost workers in Northern Nigeria health facilities, and we can look at more alternatives as described by Premium Times here.

When an agent of the state foot drags to become open, just like the National Assembly of Nigeria has been doing, even with at BudgIT’s campaign around #OpenNASS, it is indeed shying away from being democratically accountable. So what can or should happen? Ngozi Anyaegbulam of Media Watch International asked the President, if the Budget of the legislative arm passed through his table, and if he approved it after seeing the lump sum of 115 billion Naira (USD 577 million). His response was not convincing, and he clearly stated that you can only use the judiciary to actualize a reversal, and that it is still feasible to revisit the budget with the legislators. But there is the other pillar of democracy – the civil societies that needs to intervene and help the president.

As 2015 rolls by, we have seen #OpenNASS keeping the legislatures on their toes to make – not only their budget open, but also open how they spend Nigeria tax payers money, likewise the #SayNoToSocialMediaBill which hopes to put a halt to the Bill (To prohibit frivolous petitions, and other matters therewith) that is about to gag free speech via radio, text messages, and the social media. 2016 kicks in with more challenges for the citizen, just as fishes feeds under the seas, so also the legislative arm will continue to do, except organizations like BudgIT, Premium Times, CODE, Enough Is Enough, Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), Policy and Legacy Advocacy Center (PLAC) strengthen their collaboration, seek judicial implications for starting a campaign like #StopSenatorsCar to stop the exegesis of the legislatures, initiate civic – legislative engagements and demand responsiveness from the government, then – we can say we have #SackedtheSenate. Sack who? Yes, and the 35 state house of representatives that seem elusive. As we connect in 2016, like Phyno’s connect that am listening to right now – We might #NeverSettle until that fish seller (on the featured image) at Utako Market enjoys the real “dividends of democracy”

“I felt excited like a child learning new stuffs I never knew before. It was hands on learning. Great experience. I’ll attend open data events over in the future.” – Oluwaseyi Akinrotimi, Scientific Officer, Ondo State Ministry of Health

“This was quite a revealing session as  I have had some table data which is in PDF format that I can now extract as Excel spreadsheets, I was used to typing the data out into Excel, this data scraping session is really helpful for me” – Mamman Umar

“I never knew all these characters could be used in depicting data in 10 minutes, that is what I just learnt, and that has made my day” exclaimed Desmond Chieshe of ISPHS Abuja

“This event was very interactive and educative in terms of knowledge acquisition on tools for data journalism. I have started using some of the tools taught.” – Jamiu Akangbe, African Resourceful Leaders Foundation, Team Leader

[View the 646 Photos and 15 Videos from this event here]

Connected Development [CODE]’s last event of every year is always a bar camp tagged “the Open Data Party (ODP) where participants from every part of the country come together to learn and share data skills. This year, the ODP was taken to the ancient Benin City, led by our School of Data Fellow and the team lead at Sabi Hub – Nkechi Okwuone, and Friday, December 11 and Saturday, December 12 in 2015 welcomed 117 social workers, civil servants, journalists, academics and other data enthusiast to the Law Lecture Theater Annexe of the Post Graduate School of the Benson Idahosa University in Edo State, with support from the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Indigo Trust, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Code for Africa. As at the time of writing this 61.1% of the participants rated the different aspect of the event as excellent, while 33% responded that it was good; 38.9% rated our facilitators as good, 38.9% rated them as excellent.

70% of registered participants for this year were male while 30% were female (a 70% increase from last year female participants). 48% were civil society representative; 29.4% were entrepreneurs; 20% were student; 12.5% were media professional (a 40% decrease to last year); 28% were designers and data wranglers (an 40% decrease); 16.3% were academics; 6.9% were government official (a 40% decrease); 82.5% of Participants say they want to learn more about Understanding Data Pipelines, Using Data Analysis, Data Reporting and Visualization. Only 45% of the participants were good at presenting data, 66% of the participants were not good at collecting data and 41.3% of the participants were good at Data Analysis.

“So far, outside the United States and a few other major Western democracies, we have really seen open data being something happening at the national level. When we try to solve problems for citizens, problems are local. People need data to know about what is happening to them locally and often that is managed by sub-national governments” – These were the words of Katelyn Rogers of the Open Knowledge Foundation while giving opening remarks at the event. One important session introduced at this years ODP was the ideation session which allows participants to proffer solutions to a pressing waste management challenge in Benin City, a session that was introduced through the Code for Africa partnership.

Adam Talsman of Reboot training participants on how to use FormHub for surveys

The introduction to Data Pipelines that always opened sessions at the Open Data Party was immediately followed by three ignite talks to ignite participants on how organizations are using the data pipelines in working around data. The Open Data Companion (ODC) was presented by Osahon Okungbowa showing how they have compiled all open data portals around the world into one platform. Abdul Ganiyu Rufai from the Center for Information, Technology and Development (CITAD) explained how they aggregated hate speech for the just concluded general elections in Nigeria, while Blaise Aboh from Orodata shared how they are visualizing available government data, and creating simple information products that citizens can understand, in order to hold the government accountable.

Blaise Aboh training participants on how to create infographics from data sets

As a follow up to the maiden Open Data Party in Abuja, and owing to feedback’s from last year event , this year’s event had nine hours of hands – on – training (skill share) embedded in the two days event. The hands – on workshops included Data Analysis using Google Spreadsheet and Microsoft Excel; Data Scraping using Tabula and import.io; Ground Truthing using Mobile apps such as FormHub and Textit; Visualizing data using maps with CartoDB and Open Street Maps; Visualizing data using infographics with specifics on infogr.am; and writing effective Freedom of information (FOI) letter. “The Data Analysis session is one of the most educative sessions I have attended amongst the sessions. “I have learnt where to get budget for environment especially ones related to my state, and how I can analyze it using Excel, I never knew this before coming” said Erdoo Anango of Kwasedoo Foundation International from Benue state.

Oluwamayowa Oshindero training participants on Google Drive collaboration tools

Because the Open Data Party was meant for participants, and we really want them to participate, and make decisions on what they would like to teach, three hours was dedicated to an un – conference session on the second day which included a Follow The Money session where participants were exposed to how they can track funds meant for their local communities, and an opportunity for them as well to engage Follow The Money Nigeria as a state monitor. “We are aware of the Great Green Wall project, however it remains unclear how the funds budgeted for this have been spent, and we think we should be part of this team to track the funds in Yobe” explained Mohammed Garba Musa. Another intersesting session was the Funding your projects/Ideas and using Google Drive for Collaboration and Web Analytics.

From left: Hamzat Lawal of CODE, Nanso Jideofor of Reboot, Temi Adeoye of Code For Nigeria, Katelyn rogers of open knowledge, and Destiny Frederick of EcoFuture during a Panel Discussions on Open Data, Waste Management and Internet Governance

The Open Data Party was concluded by ideation session which had 14 participants presenting their ideas on how they can help to reduce waste in Benin City. The ideation participants presented ideas ranging from advocacy strategies, development of applications to help create situation awareness,development of applications that waste managers can also use in tracking waste in municipalities.Abdul Ganiyu Rufai who presented an idea of creating a platform for the Waste Management Board in Kano that can help them track where new dump-site are located, and also create awareness by sending SMS to Kano citizens was paired with Emmanuel Odianosen who presented the prototype of an app called Clyn that can be used in sending messages to Waste Managers, letting them know of waste available to pick up. They both won the ideation sessions, and will be supported by Connected Development [CODE] and Sabi Hub to develop their idea to reduce waste and improve waste management in Kano and Edo state.

SDG Goal 1 – No Poverty

The 9th of December of every year since 2005 is set aside by the United Nations [UN] as the “International Anti-Corruption” day as adopted by the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime [UNODC].

This year’s theme is ‘Break The Corruption Chain’ already being popularised on social media using the campaign #breakthechain. The aim of this campaign is to show the cross-cutting and impact corruption has on all aspects of human endeavour and sustainable development for the planet.

Official Logo for #breakthechain Campaign

Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon in his message said that the 2030 agenda for sustainable development looking at GOAL 16, recognizes the need to fight corruption in all its aspects and calls for significant reductions in illicit financial flows as well as for recovery of stolen assets.

Back home, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, Connected Development joined fellow CSOs, key government stakeholders and the international community to mark the Anti-Corruption Day by being part of an anti-corruption seminar convened by Centre for Social Justice with Stop Impunity Nigeria, Say No Campaign, Transparency Nigeria and Zero Corruption Coalition in close cooperation with the Presidential Advisory Committee [PAC] on Anti-Corruption and funded by the European Union under the ‘Project on Support to Anti-Corruption in Nigeria’.

In his welcome address, Myani Bukar, representing Professor Bolaji Owasanoye of the PAC explained the mandate and role of the PAC while encouraging the continuous participation of CSOs in the fight against corruption’; meanwhile the rep for the Country Director of the United Nations Development Program [UNDP], Pa Lamin Beyai, noted that the adopted Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] which were crafted in far more consultative manner that the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs], has shown the importance of good governance and accountability as enshrined in GOALS 7- 11.

Corruption in Nigera is a story that needs no introduction, the current administration of President Buhari defines corruption as the greatest form of human right injustice. Many people believe that oil boom and the dismal dispensation of duties administration by public officers has supported the rise of corruption. Other factors such as greed, nepotism and an ostentatious lifestyle have also supported corruption.

One of the highlights of the seminar was the presentation of a ‘vox populi’ video which touched on key topics surrounding corruption. Panels were held as well on corruption practices in Nigeria and how CSOs, Faith-based organisations and other associations to share insights on fighting the scourge of corrupt practices and fortifying anti-corruption chains through cooperation.

Some of the recommendations offered the CSO reps included increasing capacity building for CSOs on understanding the instruments that support enabling acts such as the FOI act, building better knowledge bases for affairs on key MDAs that some CSOs have their work centered around, in addition, CSO workers should be courageous in speaking up on matters beyond the National level and look at both State and Local levels. Finally, Citizens were encouraged to see governance as their responsibility, given that it was in pursuance of their civic rights that our leaders are now in power.

CODE, through its Follow The Money initiative breaks the corruption chain by ensuring transparency and accountability in the implementation of funds [international aid or government spending] intended for local communities.