The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room) has expressed concern over the recent demand by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for an increase in budgetary allocation from N40 billion to N126 billion to conduct the off-cycle governorship election in Anambra State, carry out the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, replace damaged materials, among other activities.
The convener of the body, Yunusa Ya’u, who made this observation at the weekend in Abuja, wondered why INEC is demanding such an amount in a year when it is not conducting a general election.
Regretting that INEC’s demand comes at a time when citizens are calling for a clean register of voters in Nigeria, he urged the commission to work with other public identity management agencies to clean up the register in a way that eliminates the deficiencies in the current one.
He said, “A register of 93 million voters with just 25 million turnout, leaving about 70 million voters unaccounted for in this age, is a big concern.
“Situation Room is worried that INEC’s attempt to continue adding voters to the January 2011 register, despite its current deficiencies, will amount to a waste of public funds.
“Therefore, the commission should put in place a new system that will allow citizens who have turned 18 years of age and possess any official identity card—such as a National Identity Card, Passport, or Driver’s License—to indicate where they want to vote in any election. It should also conduct validation in the hinterlands to enable the aged and less literate citizens to revalidate their registration.”
Ya’u called on INEC to also publish the proposed 2025 budget for public input.
Disclosing that the group is worried that the proposed budget and the ongoing defense process do not reflect the current economic realities in the country, he regretted that during the 2024 appropriation process, the National Assembly increased the proposed budget by over N1 trillion by inserting several projects with no national significance into the budgets of ministries and agencies that have no mandate to undertake such projects.
He said, “In fact, the way the projects were inserted by the lawmakers suggests that the Federal Government has deliberately usurped the Local Government Councils in their duties to the people, as the majority of the projects fall within the purview of the local government.
“The 2025 appropriation process is trying to reinforce this negative occurrence introduced into Nigeria’s federal budget in recent times and heightened by both the 9th and 10th Assemblies. This has consequences on the economy, including inflation and rising poverty levels.”
He called on the National Assembly to remove any budgetary proposal that does not reflect the level of public prudence required during this period of economic difficulty, insisting that only critical projects with high national socio-economic benefits should be considered.
The convener advised the Federal Government to spend within its means with the required level of prudence and establish an accountability benchmark for all ministries, departments, and agencies in collaboration with CSOs and the media.
He said”Only critical projects with high national socio-economic benefits should be considered. This, therefore, means that projects meant for Local Government Councils should not appear in the federal budget.”
He also called on the President to ensure that every institution receiving and utilizing public funds is transparent and accountable to the people.
He added, “There is a need for citizens and civic groups to participate in the budget process at different levels.
“As public institutions defend their proposed budgets, it is expected that citizens should be given the opportunity to make inputs and be involved in budgetary processes at all stages.
“Section 14 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria clearly states that sovereignty belongs to the people. The government, which derives its powers from the Constitution, must adhere to this obligation in all its processes.”
