IPC begins budget monitoring trainings

Arogundade

In furtherance of its aim of making Nigerians participate in politics through its project, Strengthening Citizens’ Engagement in Electoral Process (SCEEP), the International Press Centre (IPC) in conjunction with UKAID/DFID and ACTIONAID, has started implementing another phase of SCEEP which involves training Nigerians on how and why they should participate in the preparation of and monitor the implementation of budgets.

The first SCEEP 2-day training on Budget Literacy and Budget Monitoring began in Lagos on Thursday, December 8, 2016 for citizens of Shomolu LGA, and in his welcome remarks, Lanre Arogundade, Director, IPC, said budgets are very important as they are political and financial statements, they determine if government is pro-rich or pro-poor, and there’s a very close relationship between budgets and corruption.

During the first training session, Lere Oyeniyi, of the Institute for Media and Society, explained what a budget is and said it’s the right of Nigerians to ask if the budget was implemented appropriately.

Also speaking, Michael Awopetu, of the Centre for Ethics and Cultural orientation, said Nigerians should be involved in budget preparation and that’s where are getting it wrong. He added that most budgets are phony and that if communities don’t participate in budget preparation to ensure that their needs are included, then those needs can’t be implemented for them.

He added that when such needs are even included in budgets, they still have to keep lobbying to ensure that they are implemented for them.