By Cross Udo, Abuja
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Rivers State, Darlington Nwauju, has urged heads of ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs of government at all levels to emulate the bottom-to-top approach to budget implementation at the Interior Ministry under Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
Nwauju, the spokesman of the APC in Rivers State, explained that the Interior Minister has eliminated wastages, which he said led to the increase of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from the N2bn target set by the Ministry in the 2024 budget to N5.6bn.
In a statement yesterday, the APC spokesman said, “We do believe that adopting the value delivery strategy in budget implementation will help underline needs assessment and prioritize policies and projects in the greater interest of ordinary Nigerians as have been successfully achieved by that Ministry.
“Therefore, carefully scrutinizing our annual budgets will translate into workable and people-centered policy frameworks.
“We call on Nigerians to take a special interest in the budgetary system and track the implementation of these budgets to ensure that value for taxpayers’ monies is comprehensively achieved.
“We acknowledge the hard work of Dr Tunji-Ojo and urge other heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to copy such patriotic examples to save the nation from wastes on bogus annual recurrent expenditures.”
He advised the media to take special interest in reporting such remarkable achievements in the same way they report wastages, corrupt practices, and poor performance by public servants.
He said, “For the 2024 fiscal year, the Interior Ministry surpassed its official target, remitting over N5.6bn to the federal purse, and completed various multi-million naira contracts even with zero capital allocation to that Ministry.
“We do believe such a performing Ministry deserves the commendation of all Nigerians and, of course, the support of the National Assembly in the soon-to-be-approved 2025 Budget document by increasing the allocation to that Ministry to surpass its 2024 performance.
“We believe it will amount to a disservice to the Nation if the National Assembly does not collaborate with that Ministry, which warehouses very strategic paramilitary agencies that cater to the internal security needs of the Nation.
“Naturally, both overhead and personnel costs for this Ministry should be improved upon, and allocations for capital projects should be prioritized given the fantastic performance the Ministry has posted in the 2024 fiscal year.”
