Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe state has signed the 2023 Appropriation budget of N176, 016, 202, 000 into law.
Governor Yahaya said the Budget of Further Consolidation, was arrived at due to the strong collaboration between the Executive, the Legislature and the citizens’ inputs.
It will be recalled that the government engaged the citizens in a townhall meeting on November 1, 2022, where it sought their contributions and inputs on the proposed budget.
Consequently, during the budget signing, Governor Yahaya said his administration would work hard to ensure the full implementation of the budget, to achieve, not just 65%, but up to 100%.
He also gave the assurances that his administration would continue to collaborate with the Gombe State House of Assembly in order the move the state forward.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Gombe State House of Assembly on Appropriation, Mr. Ali Baba-Manu, said the state Legislature was committed to the development of the state, disclosing that the budget went through all necessary procedures before its timely passage.
He said the budget, as signed by the Governor had, as always, 90 percent citizens representation , because their inputs were considered and reflected, while 70 percent of their inputs had been actualised in their various constituencies.
“This is the first time in the history of Gombe State that the budget goes through all the kind of processes to be assented to, first by policy statement of government, presenting the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, calling on all to bring about all critical stakeholders, civil society groups to bring their contributions, which over the last four years, which Your Excellency, you’ve been attending,” said Mr. Baba-Manu.
He, however, appealed to the Governor to consider the proposals of the legislatures, which were before him, so that members of the assembly would put in their best for the effective conduct of their legislative functions.
Mr. Baba-Manu said the members of the Legislature were not rubberstamp legislators, but that bills from the Governor does not take long before they assent to them, because he had always presented development driven bills to them.
He praised Governor Yahaya’s transparent handling of the state finances, which had now lifted the state from far behind to the 4th position in the Fiscal Transparency Ranking.
