Niger Delta Citizens Coalition Demands Budget Accountability

The Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform (NDCBP) recently undertook an investigation into regional development projects included in the budgets of four of Nigeria's Delta states: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers. NDCBP members analyzed state and local government budgets and helped mobilize local communities to monitor the implementation of health and education aspects of the budgets. The findings of community monitors are included in four Budget Analysis Briefs (available below) and the forthcoming 2009 Citizens' Report on States and Local Government Budgets in the Niger Delta.

The NDCBP is a collaboration of citizens groups involved in enabling community participation in budget development and monitoring. The coalition's overall aim is to help combat corruption in public offices in the states and local government councils of the Niger Delta and the country at large.

In 2008, the governor of Nigeria's Delta State announced the region's 2009 budget, optimistically titled the "Budget of Sustainable Development." Unfortunately, the budget's ambitions (and billions of dollars in appropriations) have yielded few results, as the awarding of contracts for development projects was marked by corruption and nepotism. Many development contracts were awarded to personal contacts of government officials or officials themselves, and numerous projects were executed poorly or have stalled, leaving a spate of half-constructed public buildings in the region.

In his investigation of budget projects in Delta State, NDCBP Program Officer Ken Henshaw said he found "highly inflated" contracts and "government failure and disillusionment due to the inefficient monitoring of contracts." Henshaw also said too few citizens had an adequate understanding of the government's budgeting and fiscal activities, or of their right to participate in monitoring government processes and demand accountability from their representatives.

The range of 2009 Budget Analysis Briefs from the region, as well as media reports by journalists who accompanied NDCBP budget monitors on their oversight missions, are helping raise public awareness of the importance of budget accountability in the Niger Delta region.

LEARN MORE

• Beyond Amnesty: Citizens Report on State and Local Government Budgets in the Niger Delta, 2009 (NDCBP)
• Communities and the Petroleum Industry Bill (Social Action)
• Contractors Abandon School Projects in Delta State (The Guardian)
• Akwa Ibom State: NDCBP Budget Analysis Brief for 2009 (pdf)
• Bayelsa State: NDCBP Budget Analysis Brief for 2009 (pdf)
• Delta State: NDCBP Budget Analysis Brief for 2009 (pdf)
• Rivers State: NDCBP Budget Analysis Brief for 2009 (pdf)
• Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform (Social Action)