By Edith Igbokwe
Stakeholders in the primary health care sector are grieving over their loss of budgetary allocation to their counterparts in the education sector following the presentation of budget proposals by the executive to the legislative arm of Oshodi-Isolo Local Government recently.
The draft budget presented to the legislative arm by the chairman, Hon. Bolaji Muse-Ariyoh features a loss of 28.6 percent in allocation compared to 2019 estimates.
In 2019, N35million was allocated to Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme, rehabilitation of health clinics and provision of health equipment while a sum of N1million was earmarked for HIV/AIDS.
However, in 2020, N25million was allocated to Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme, Rehabilitation of Health Clinics and provision of health equipment while a sum of N1million was earmarked for HIV/AIDS in overhead.
Obviously, there is a decrease in the budget for the healthcare sector from N35million in 2019 to N25million in 2020.
The loss of the health sector proved the gain of the education sector whose allocation rose from N25million last year to 30million this year, about 20 percent increase.
For instance in the previous year, Education’s N25million was earmarked for the construction/rehabilitation of primary schools, provision of school furniture, rehabilitation of adult vocational centres as well as provision for the needs of the less privileged children.
This decrease in the health budget, according to observers and analysts, may have adverse effects on the healthcare services considering the increase in the population of people living in Oshodi and the number of those who depend on primary health centres.
In the same vein, the allocation for Works, Housing & Infrastructure sector in 2020 was 47% less compared to what was allocated in 2019, a total of N206,581,078.6 was deducted this year.
With the decrease from N438,245,806.65 in 2019 to N 231,664,727.96 in 2020, Works, Housing & Infrastructure sector may not be active as there may not be significant infrastructure development as expected by the residents compared to what was experienced in the previous year.
Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) is another sector that may not be given the expected attention in the year 2020 as it also got a 66.7% lesser than the previous year.
In 2019, a total of N15million was earmarked for empowerment and poverty alleviation as the government said the well being of the people of Oshodi-Isolo “is paramount to this administration”; this year,the sum was reduced by 66.7% to N5million allocated to people’s welfare in 2020.
Besides education, other favoured sectors include, Environmental Service and Waste Management.
Environmental Service and Waste Management sector received additional N11million – 37.9 % (from N29million in 2019 to N40million) for efficient management of community waste.
The sum of N10million was earmarked in the budget for Agricultural, Rural & Social Development to improve the sector.
It should be noted that the total budget for the year 2020 is not different in figure from what was presented and approved last year, N2,222,461,955.37 approved in 2019 as the budget of the local government.
For the current fiscal year, the local government is targeting Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at N160,600,000 (7.23%) while statutory allocation and VAT are estimated to be N2,061,861,955.37 ( 92.77%).
While presenting the budget tagged “Budget of Joy” to the legislative arm for ratification, the LG Chairman said the proposed financial appropriation bill for the year 2020 is to facilitate more development and ensure peace and harmony in the local government area.
“We propose a total sum of N2,222,461,955.37 as both re-current and capital expenditure out of which N370,000,000.00 (16.65%) is for personnel cost of council staff, N350,000,000.00 (15.75%) is for teachers’ salaries. Statutory deduction takes 200,000.00 (9.00%), overhead cost takes N716,354,075.45 (32.23%) while N586,107,879.92 (26.37%) is for capital expenditure.
He submitted that from the above analysis, salaries (Staff and teachers) took greater percentage of the total expenditure.
The council chairman during the budget presentation assured the residents of Oshodi of more developmental projects for the continuity of good governance with delivery of more dividends of democracy for positive transformation of the local government.
He however, charged the residents of Oshodi to be law abiding and peaceful.
He also charged the legislative arm on speedy passage of the budget for timely execution of the projects contained in the budget for the year 2020.
Appraising the execution of the previous year’s budget, Ariyoh said the budget performance was far beyond average, saying its execution was above 75%, promising that there would be improvement in the execution of the 2020 budget.
The Leader of the House, Hon. Rasheed Obasa while receiving the proposed budget appreciated the executive chairman on the performance of the year 2019, noting that it captured the yearnings and aspirations of the people of Oshodi.
He however expressed hope that the performance of 2020 budget would be better than the previous year, promising that the proposed budget would be given accelerated deliberation and consideration before passage into law with proper scrutiny to ensure the year 2020 is tailored towards giving joy to the residents of the community as tagged.