On the much-opinionated Budget mixup
There’s so much fuse about the Account records of the present administration in Akwa Ibom State. The outbreak of the news which began as whispers has gained public attention in so short a while, with various subsects of people lending their opinions to the issue.
Meanwhile, the noisome fuse is about an erroneous record presented by the State Accountant General, indicating that the government spent more than the budgeted sum for the repairs of an aircraft.
In the heat of the acceptability of the report, it was discovered that what was given out to the public was a wrongly prepared financial record which was retrieved, annulled and represented in a notice dated September 2, 2020. This was the position of the State Government when it addressed members of the press in a conference on Wednesday, November 18.
However, this contrite restatement of the true position of things does not seem to sink into the coffers of many heads. Castigations in form of distrust and defamations have continued to trail the State Government’s genuineness while a lot of persons have seized the occurrence to malign the image and administration of Governor Emmanuel.
Technically, it is safe to say that the gentlemen of the press who first made public the story, relied on an invalid document which had been annulled by the State Accountant General.
Without looking back, the Government towed the path of responsibility and transparency in coming out to debunk the falsehood, using the truth as evidenced in the corrected version of the account which it hoped would be used to replace the incongruities in the minds of the people. Little did it know that we have long lost appetite for truth.
In the history of administrations known across globes, responsibility and sensitivity to the needs of people is that distinguishing factor between a good and bad government. A government which realizes and calms crisis stirs before they arrive should get a thumbs-up! This was the rationale behind the press conference called.
Before you fault the government for ‘’claiming to have made a mistake” (as some have said), you should also ask to know if the government is infallible. Are the machineries of the government not human? Are they encapsulated from making mistakes? Of course not; everybody does mistakes even with the myriad of technologies available to avoid them.
Rather than become half-baked public analysts overnight, we ought to applaud the government’s initiative in owning up to its mistakes; it takes courage and responsibility to do this. It was no mistake to have admitted an error; it is the right thing to do. As a matter of fact, many governments nationally and internationally do not dare this level of humility and responsibility, let alone publish their financial budgets and expenditure in the media.
The Government did not spend above what was budgeted for. The account released was a wrong record erroneously published. Lets stop reacting to the invalid document and see the corrected true version, what’s the big deal in that?
We’ve never had such mistake in the history of this administration and should therefore accept the apology tendered; this (forgiveness), according to philosophers, is divine. Let the defamation stop and embrace the transparency portrayed by this administration. God help
