This Attitude Of Poor Funding

The cry of lack of
funding by the government as revealed by most heads of government parastatals has become a song whose lyrics cannot be heard yet the melody hardly ignored. Particularly among the federal parastatals and agencies that cut across the states, the situation is better described as an inherent syndrome.
About three weeks ago, the Technical Adviser and Head of Reintegration Department, Office of the President on Niger Delta, Mr Larry Pepple, in a phone-in programme organised by Silverbird Communications, Port Harcourt, disclosed that the Amnesty Programme has been starving of funds in the present administration.
According to him, five years into the programme, (2010-2014), the scheme for Niger Delta militants as inaugurated by the late President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, is being plaque by shortage of funds. In 2012 and 2013, we were not having issues of delayed payment, but since 2014, there has been poor budgetary releases and that has been a very big challenge.
This is not to say however, that before then, it had been well by if not the amnesty programme, other programmes, agencies or parastatals of the federal government.
About three years ago, I visited the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) office in Port Harcourt and the complain was none other but lack of funding. In fact, the sight of the office and its environment needed no soothsayer to explain the predicament. More surprising was the discovery that such commission ever exist and the reason could not have been different from the fact that there were no funds to keep the commission afloat despite its sensitive nature especially as it affects the plight of the government’s owned civil servants.
Offices of NIPOST, another federal parastatal are eyesores. They are so dilapidated that one can hardly imagine them to be offices of that nature-federal character.
Just last week, the federal government’s initiative or programme of funding the treatment of victims of terrorists bomb attacks was revealed to be suffering from poor funding. The list, past and present, continues.
To say that government agencies are generally characterised by poor funding and indeed, absence of welfare packages is stating the obvious. The government ignores the fact that the proper functioning of livelihood depends on the amount of funds put into the body, much more the nation’s survival.
The attainment of a viable economy depends largely on the funding of the various components of the economy yet, for the government, the reverse seems to be the case as the whole scenario is pictured a total neglect of the nation’s economy for the rich purses of a few.
The more reason for the privatization of notable sectors of the economy- power, communications etc. Though not much difference would have been felt, the populace believed that they were better placed in terms of income and expenditure.
Even schools are affected. Public and private schools are incomparable in most ramifications, to the extent that public schools are becoming the option of the poor. The instance of Akwa-Ibom State public school teachers is well defining the situation. At a time when teachers should be eager to go back to classes to impact their knowledge to the future Nigerians, they shunned work over non-payment of salaries preferring striking to returning to their jobs. And a better performance or output is expected?
How about the health sector? Doctors in most government health facilities particularly in the rural areas are not easily accessed. The usual characteristics of poor medical facilities and lackadaisical attitudes of health personnel have rendered these hospitals and health centres unpatronised. People prefer private hospitals. Indeed, the private sectors are making waves.
Government is the custodian of the peoples’ lives and properties, which are hinged on the output of the overall economy. This attitude of poor funding of governments’ agencies, the major unit if the nation’s economy is affecting not just these agencies, but the output of their staff.
The level of poverty amongst the working class in the government or public sector is becoming alarming especially in the faces of today’s harsh economy. As they live and work among their contemporaries in the private sector and multinationals, the difference is clear. Thus, they could resort to every and any means to meet up with the jones even if it means embezzlement. The reason for which corruption cannot be unlinked to the poor attitude of government to activities in the public offices. While some detest being staff of government offices, others have seen it as an ‘opportunity’ at the time when the government would have remembered such an office with funds.
For the Nigerian government, both at the federal and state governments to be viewed as responsible and accountable, delivering its acclaimed dividends of democracy to its people, it needs to have another look at this unhealthy attitude. It needs to revamp these parastatals and agencies including programmes by making funds available such that would also resuscitate the interest of it’s staffers as well as reducing the instinct of embezzlement (corruption) thereby reposing the confidence of the governed.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu