Budget: SERAP asks FG to cut down over N5bn for travels and Villa facilities to repair bad roads
A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a passionate appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan to “urgently cut down on the proposed 2013 budget of over N5 billion for the international travels of the president and vice president and renovation of official buildings for the presidency, and use any balance to repair the country’s deplorable, impassable and unsafe roads.”
The public appeal was contained in a statement dated 15 October 2012 and signed by SERAP’s Executive Director Adetokunbo Mumuni. According to the organization, “We are seriously concerned that in the face of the deplorable, impassable and inaccessible road networks across the country, a whopping N2.8 billion has been allocated to rehabilitate and repair residential buildings for the President, the Vice President and their entourages next year. Also, N2.96 billion has been allocated for the local and international travels of the president and vice president.”
“At the same time, it is estimated that the Presidency will spend N733,893,900 on refreshments and meals, foodstuff and catering materials supplies for both the president and the vice president,” the organization stated.
According to the organization, “International human rights law requires the government to spend the country’s available resources to provide for the basic necessities of life, and ensure the human rights of Nigerians. But allocations of huge resources year in year out for things like travels, repairs, and refreshments for highly paid senior public officials clearly violate the country’s good faith international obligations and commitments and exacerbate the conditions of millions of Nigerians living in poverty and misery.”
President Jonathan, Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal during the budget presentation, Wednesday, in Abuja.
“It is particularly disturbing that the extravagant spending is proposed at a time tens of thousands of Nigerians die every year on our bad and unsafe roads, and several more are injured. This is an enormous public health and human right problem which deserves government’s total commitment and action. The human cost of unnecessary deaths and injuries on our roads is profound –unimaginable suffering and grief. The economic cost is staggering, undermining the effective enjoyment of economic and social rights of Nigerians living in poverty. It is in fact the vulnerable sector of the population that suffers disproportionately the corrosive effects of bad roads in the country,” the organization also stated.
The organization also said that, “Road accidents are like the constant drip-drip of blood haemorrhaging from the body. Road accidents kill and injure people who are young and productive, and therefore have a hidden development impact. Poor families are more likely than those better off to lose their head of household and suffer immediate economic effects as a result of road traffic injuries. The loss of earnings, together with medical, funeral and legal bills, can have a ruinous effect on a family’s finances. Road safety is therefore not just a mere transport issue: it is also an important human right issue.”
According to the organization, “A people-oriented and human rights friendly government will not allow its populace to suffer unwarranted bloodshed and discomfort on the roads.”
The organization therefore urged President Jonathan to “show the leadership needed and to demonstrate his oft-repeated commitment to provide good governance for millions of impoverished Nigerians. We also urge the National Assembly to prevail on the President to prioritise repairs of the country’s roads as a matter of human rights. We call for full public oversight on the allocations for repairs of our roads to curtail the systemic corruption and absence of accountability that have characterised that sector for decades.”
The organization also said that, “Unless systemic corruption is seriously addressed, billions of naira yearly allocated for road refurbishment and construction will continue to disappear into the private pockets of senior government officials and contractors.”
The organization also alleged that, “Several of our roads remain deplorable, impassable and inaccessible. Almost 39 years after take- off, work on the N10bn Yenagoa-Okarki-Kolo road is yet to be completed, while the tarred stretch is already riddled with several failed sections. The Yenagoa-Oporoma road and Sagbama-Ekeremor-Agge road, both of which are federal roads designed in the early seventies to connect the far-flung oil rich communities in the central and western part of the present Bayelsa, never took off, in spite of their alleged repeated inclusion in the federal budget over the years.”
“The story is the same throughout the country, including for the Shagamu-Benin Expressway; Abuja-Lagos; Ibadan-Lagos; the Niger Bridge; and River Bridge in Asaba\Onitsha,” the organization added.