Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto

All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto State has described the state 2020 budget as a chain of broken promises by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

The party’s state Chairman, Isah Sadiq Acida, stated this while addressing reporters in Sokoto on Monday regarding issues concerning the state of governance in Sokoto.

Governor Tambuwal had penultimate week signed into law the 2020 budget titled ‘Budget of Sustainable Socio-Economic Development and Inclusiveness’ amounting to N202,444,458,429.

Acida said the budget’s passage is a non-event to most citizens of Sokoto State, saying it has highlighted a list of broken promises that have characterized the Tambuwal administration. The budget, he added, also represented only one of the Governor’s many unfulfilled promises.

The party, according to Acida, wondered why the 2019 budget of N169.184 billion was virtually swept under the rug at the 2020 budget presentation.

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“This is completely contrary to the established tradition where governments review their performances on the ongoing budget, highlighting their achievements, before presenting a new budget,” he said.

The party questioned the Governor on how many of the capital and ongoing projects in the 2019 budget have been completed, adding that “most of the 2019 budget’s capital projects have not even commenced as at December.”

It listed some of the projects to include the renovation of Sultan Abubakar III Airport access road at N548 million, additional structures, road networks and children’s playground equipment at the International Conference Centre, Kasarawa, at N128 million, construction and equipping of a new advanced diagnostic centre at N2.443 billion, among others.

“It is also disheartening to note that our Civil Servants have continued to bear the burden of being taxed to fund the running of education in the State, while the huge budgetary allocation to education continues to remain unaccounted for.”

The party concluded that what it describes as Governor Tambuwal’s consistent failure to honour his covenant with the people and his persistence in making promises and breaking them is predictable.