By Rose Oranye
The Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, has extolled the efforts of the Anambra State Government in making the budget and budgeting process considerably organic to respond to changing circumstances, unlike Nigeria and other states.
Speaking at a Stakeholders Consultative Forum for the 2026 Budget, organised by the Ministry of Budget and Planning, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), at the Best Western Meloch Hotel, Awka, Mefor observed that from his experience in analysing the budget at the Senate, the Nigerian budget has always been an annual ritual of repetition of items, showing that Nigeria can do without a budget.
According to him, “When I arrived in Anambra as the Commissioner for Information, I could see some remarkable shifts towards making budget and budgeting considerably organic.”
He opined that no year’s budget should be like the other because things are changing in terms of priorities and the fact that the budget itself is dynamic.
He commended the organisers and facilitators of the forum for their good jobs and for bringing traditional rulers and other critical stakeholders to the forum, urging them to ensure they put their inputs to use.
“The beautiful aspect of it is about bringing stakeholders to the forum. Traditional rulers are here. Another question is: To what extent are you going to make use of their inputs? It’s not just bringing traditional rulers here to decorate this function. The town unions should be here.
“That’s why I like the move by Prof. Soludo towards recognising town unions in government as a kind of fourth tier of government. They are the ones that will tell you truly what their needs are, even though many of their needs have to be taken care of by the local government mayoral administrations. But again, there are things that are beyond the mayors that will have to be attended to by the state government.
“Let people continue to make more and more inputs on their areas of need, because if government is removed too much from the people, what government is pursuing will not really reflect exactly what people consider to be their needs,” the Commissioner said.
