EDITORIAL: The impropriety of Rivers State’s ₦24bn Govt. House CCTV

Rivers State’s Appropriation Bill of ₦1.846 trillion for 2025, presented to the National Assembly by its Sole Administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas, has been flagged in the House of Representatives over some grey areas. The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the state of emergency rule in Rivers State suspended its deliberations on the Bill till it was furnished with the details of some alarming items of expenditure in the document. Mr Ibas was on 1 July given 48 hours to do so.

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Of deepest concern is the ₦24 billion provided for the procurement of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras for the Government House in Port Harcourt, which has been used by five governors since the Fourth Republic. Others are the N30 billion requested for the purchase of gunboats and a N23 billion contingency fund.

Besides, Mr Ibas put the cart before the horse by not submitting the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the parliament before presenting the budget. The MTEF is a mandatory legal or fiscal document that precedes budget submission and guides lawmakers in making informed decisions or conclusions on the envisioned expenditure.

The Julius Ihonvbere-led committee said, “We need additional details for these allocations. We request details of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last three months. That will enable us know your financial flows so that we can weigh it against the deficit in the budget in terms of financing it and carrying out some projects.”

Strangely, the Senate’s ad hoc committee on the state’s emergency rule, chaired by the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, expeditiously rubber-stamped the budget on 25 June, despite these weighty observations of the House committee. One senator described the budget as “well structured.” But we disagree!

Besides, a budget that “some officials withheld critical information required to ensure a more complete capture of expenditures” in the first quarter, as Mr Ibas revealed to federal lawmakers, cannot be viewed in glowing terms as the Senate did. Budget consideration in any given year is flawed without a critical review of the performance of the preceding year’s budget. Again, Mr Ibas alleged that the bureaucracy withheld information from him on this, even when he had the power to compel compliance.

Details of the transfer of funds of Local Government Areas, or how funds due to them have been managed since the state of emergency rule, were also demanded by the national legislature. Mr Ibas had appointed sole administrators for the 23 local government areas of the state, as those elected under the Siminalayi Fubara administration were sacked by the Supreme Court.

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Queried also was the provision of funds for federal government projects, without first seeking the approval of the federal authorities in lieu of subsequent reimbursement. The due diligence exhibited so far by the House committee is commendable. Such attention to detail, we hope, will ensure value for money, transparency and accountability.

Originally, an Appropriation Bill of ₦1.48 trillion was transmitted to the National Assembly, which was thereafter increased by an additional ₦365 billion, justified by Mr Ibas as arising from spending commitments in the first quarter of the year, before the declaration of the state of emergency. Details of the 2025 outlay include ₦324.5 billion for infrastructure, ₦166 billion for health, ₦117 billion for pensions and gratuities, ₦5 billion for free drug distribution, and ₦38.85 billion for shoreline protection. Also included were ₦30 billion for zonal secondary schools and ₦5.75 billion for the rehabilitation of primary schools, ₦25 billion for a housing scheme, ₦3billion for a youth resource centre, and ₦2.5 billion for women empowerment.

We are of the view that the budgeting of ₦24 billion for CCTV cameras for the Government House is excessive and reckless, and therefore not of utmost interest to the Rivers’ people. Interestingly, former governors Peter Odili, Rotimi Amaechi, and Nyesom Wike, cumulatively spent 24 years of two terms each, without such expenditure.

If there was an urgent need for such security precautionary measures in the Government House, Mr Wike would very likely have fixed this with his record of performance in the provision of infrastructure and maintenance of law and order. And it is actually inconceivable that such security equipment is not already in existence there. It is noteworthy, too, that all hell has not been let loose in the state since the emergency declaration was made, against the grain of public imagination, with the belligerency that it provoked from indigenes of the state who were aggrieved by the aberration. Pleasantly, law and order have prevailed.

It bears repeating that the ₦24 billion CCTV outlay is suspect. Therefore, it should be discarded. The Senior Special Assistant on Strategy and Policy to the Sole Administrator, Andrew Nweke, who appeared before the House committee to defend the budget, was hard put in justifying it when he said, “The Office of the Governor is one of honour and strategic importance. It deserves modern surveillance and security technology.”

The House committee should redirect the fund to more critical areas like education and health. Rehabilitating dilapidated primary schools for which a paltry ₦5.75 billion was allocated, alongside the recruitment of more teachers, in our view, are more important expenditure lines and use of public resources than the installation of ₦24 billion worth of cameras in a Government House that is already a fortress.

ALSO READ: 2025: Enugu to spend N10bn on CCTV cameras, N5bn for security vehicles

President Bola Tinubu appointed Mr Ibas a sole administrator for Rivers State on 18 March, shortly after he imposed emergency rule there, following the then intractable feud between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor and political godfather, Nyesom Wike, which had grave security and economic implications for Nigeria. Cheeringly, both have now resolved their differences largely due to the president’s political deftness.

Mr Ibas has about two months left. Certainly, he is not better placed than Mr Fubara and the state’s House of Assembly, expected back in their offices soon, to give the people of Rivers State the budget they deserve.

However, the House should not compromise on its ongoing scrutiny of the budget, as it presently serves as the state’s parliament, alongside the Senate, in line with the provisions of Section 11 (4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, in the absence of the state assembly that was suspended with the governor. They should use their numerical strength to override the Senate when the two chambers meet to harmonise their differences on the budget.