‘Ekiti 2017 budget will be rural-based, participatory’

Governor Ayo Fayose has declared that every community in Ekiti State would be allowed to have input into the 2017 budget so as to make it people-oriented.A statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi in Ado Ekiti,quoted Fayose as saying that traditional rulers, local chiefs and community leaders would be consulted to offer suggestions before the final ratification of the budget.

The governor said he had commenced collating the views and opinions of community leaders in the preparation of the 2017 Budget, According to him, this will produce a document that truly reflects the needs of the people and not that of government alone

“It is my belief that this type of bottom-to-top approach being adopted by the government in preparing the budget will ensure prioritising the needs of the people.“State officials cannot just sit down in Ado-Ekiti and choose what the people want in the various communities for the government to accommodate in the budget; it must be participatory and all-embracing.

If we say let us, for instance, do a road project somewhere, the most important need of the people of that community could be a health facility.We want people’s participation in the preparation of the budget so as to affect their lives positively and meet with them at very point of their need,” he said.

According to a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report yesterday, the governor also promised that his administration would not leave any abandoned project behind while leaving office.

Fayose advised community leaders to hold meetings with their people as well as collate their needs and forward the same to their local government chairmen. “Such documents will get to us at the state level, and we want to assure all that we will try as much as possible and within available resources to touch many communities,” the governor said.