Make 2027 Budget Count: RECEF Urges Kogi Government to Fund Water, Housing, Mass Transit, Clean Cities

TweetA civil society leader has called on the Kogi State Government to stop treating the annual budget as a ritual and to use the 2027 budget to deliver measurable improvements in citizens’ daily lives.

Amb. Idris Ozovehe Muraina, Executive Director of the Renaissance Care and Empowerment Foundation (RECEF), made the call in a paper presented at the preparatory Town Hall Meeting for the Kogi State 2027 Budget, held at Edge Drive Hotel in Lokoja. His paper was titled “From Budgeting as an Annual Ritual to Budgeting for Transformation.”

Muraina told the gathering that a town hall should be more than a statutory consultation. He described it as “a moment of truth between government and the governed.”

He stressed that civil society was not asking for a bigger budget but for a better-connected, evidence-based and development-driven one. He said the forum’s value would be judged by how much credible input finds its way into the Appropriation Bill that is eventually presented, passed and implemented.

Central to his argument was the Kogi State Development Plan 2024-2056. He said the task now is to link that long-term vision to sector priorities, annual budgets, measurable targets and clear implementation responsibility. He urged the government to develop costed, time-bound Sector Implementation Plans, supported by Sector Implementation Councils and tied to Medium-Term Sector Strategies.

He also proposed that every major capital allocation in the 2027 budget answer a set of basic questions. These include which development objective it advances, what problem it solves, who benefits, when it will be delivered, what outcome citizens should expect and which institution is accountable.

On service delivery, Muraina said Kogi State does not lack policy conversations, workshops or plans. In his view, the real challenge is turning ideas into sustained implementation. He said civil society groups have repeatedly canvassed four practical interventions, and that the persistence of these demands shows they have not yet been addressed at the scale required. The first is the rehabilitation and reticulation of public water systems, beginning with an audit of existing infrastructure. He noted that a state with abundant water resources should not leave households so dependent on costly private supply. The second is a sustainable mass transit system, which he said must go beyond buying vehicles to include route planning, professional management, transparent operations and maintenance arrangements. The third is a clean and liveable Lokoja, supported by adequate financing, clear institutional responsibility and measurable sanitation standards. The fourth is a credible housing programme to ease rising rents, built on realistic income categories, land access, private-sector participation and transparent beneficiary selection.

The RECEF director also criticised the fragmentation of development data. He observed that Kogi State has benefited from donor and Official Development Assistance projects in education, agriculture, climate resilience, rural access, social protection and women’s empowerment. However, he said that where project data are scattered across ministries, departments, agencies and implementing partners, the state risks duplication and poor targeting of scarce resources. He reiterated the call for a functional ODA coordination mechanism and a harmonised data system, arguing that evidence should precede expenditure.

Muraina presented seven specific requests to the government. It should fund and complete the Sector Implementation Plans and activate the implementation councils with participation from government, civil society, academia and the private sector. The 2027 budget should use the State Development Plan as its organising framework, linking major programmes to measurable outcomes. The government should prioritise the completion, functionality and maintenance of strategic projects over adding new ones to the budget document. It should build a stronger development-data and ODA coordination architecture. Water, mass transit, urban cleanliness and affordable housing should be made visible priorities in the fiscal plan. The government should institutionalise transparent reporting on appropriations, releases, implementation status and outcomes. Finally, government-civil society technical engagement should continue beyond the annual town hall.

He acknowledged that not all civil society proposals have been adopted but said this would not stop responsible groups, working through the Kogi NGOs Network (KONGONET) and as individual organisations, from continuing to offer technical support. He added that citizens should be able to see a reasonable connection between the views they submit and the priorities the government eventually adopts. Because the State Development Plan spans 32 years and extends beyond any single administration, he also suggested exploring a legal framework to safeguard its continuity.

Addressing the Executive Governor, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, all MDAs and, later, the State House of Assembly, Muraina said the real question is not how much Kogi State will spend in 2027 but what will change in people’s lives as a result. He urged them to build a budget that moves from projects to outcomes, from fragmented interventions to coordinated implementation, and from assumptions to evidence. “The State Development Plan has given Kogi State a destination,” he said. “The 2027 budget preparation must help provide the road, the resources and the discipline to get there.”

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