COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF A 2-DAY WORKSHOP ON BUDGET-MONITORING ORGANISED BY THE MUSLIM RIGHTS CONCERN

PREAMBLE:

Governments and related agencies are therefore kept on the tiptoes of probity and accountability leading to faithful and religious implementation of budgets. This will lead to sound economic growth and increased welfare for the citizenry.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) in patnership with Fix Nigeria Initiative (FIN), an arm of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) organised a 2-day workshop under the theme ‘Budget Monitoring for Transparency and Economic Growth’. The workshop which was held at Choicest Hall, VolksWagen, Ojo, Lagos State, from Tuesday 8th to Wednesday 9th April was attended by representatives of eleven Islamic organisations and thirteen civil society organisations.

OBSERVATIONS:

Workshop observed the following:

1. that Nigeria remains a poverty-stricken country due to the high level of corruption in society;
2. that rulers are in the habit of unilateral and half-hearted implementation of budgets; 
3. that Nigeria’s infrastructures like electricity, pipe-borne water, hospitals and good road network are non-functional because budgets once prepared are designed to satisfy kleptomaniacs in public office and
4. participants attest to the absence of budget control mechanisms as well as the nonchalant attitude of the authorities to budget monitoring.

RESOLUTIONS:

Workshop therefore resolves:

1. that participants at this workshop pledge to join the growing army of corruption fighters and to act as whistle-blowers against economic saboteurs, kleptomaniacs and other corrupt officials at federal, state, local government or whatever level they may attempt to operate;
2. that it was high time governments evolve a paradigm shift from unilateral budgetary system to participatory budgeting whereby government gets the people’s input into its budgets while civil society participates in the implementation of government’s budgets;
3. to urge the Nigerian public as the ultimate stakeholder to critically monitor governments’ projects to ensure that votes are spent on exact projects for which they are allocated; it further warned citizens to raise alarm early enough whenever they suspect that any project is about to be abandoned and
4. that Nigerian authorities must create checks and balances in the budgetary system and to make budgets citizen-friendly; in particular, workshop charged the authorities to prepare official schedules for quarterly public briefings on budget performance in order to keep rulers on the tip-toes of transparency, probity and accountability.

This communiqué is hereby signed by five representatives of participants present at the workshop:

NAME                                                       ORGANISATION

1. Ayilola James Olakunle ……..Labour, Health & Human Rights Development Centre
2. Salmat Adimode… …………..Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
3. Okwuchukwu Onwuniere ……Global Alert for the Defence of Youths
4. Alhaja Ganiyat Fowora ……...Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN)
5. Bode Sanusi …………………Al-Fathu Qareeb Society