By Gbenga Ariyibi

Ado-Ekiti—Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, yesterday presented a budget  of N74.7 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2011 fiscal year.

The budget proposal is N9 billion higher than last year budget presented by the ousted governor, Engr Segun Oni which was N65 billion. The budget christened The Budget of Renewal, has N40 billion, representing 55 per cent as capital expenditure, while N30 billion, representing 45 per cent, was proposed as recurrent expenditure.

The economic sector took the largest chunk of the  budget with the sum of 47.72 per cent  of the budget voted for the sector. Agriculture and rural development, small and medium scale enterprises will gulp N3.7 billion. N9.4 billion, representing 22.68 per cent, is earmarked for the social sector which has education, health, information and social development, while environmental development sector will gulp N8.7 billion, representing 21.5 per cent, of the vote.

He also revealed that N120 million has been set aside in the recurrent expenditure for the payment of outstanding entitlements of all past political office holders in the state.

The governor pointed out that key sectors like agriculture, job creation, infrastructural development, healthcare delivery, education, housing, public transportation, social security for the less-privileged, internal security, tourism and workers’ welfare would recieve a boost from his government

Fayemi said the main focus of the budget is to liberate Ekiti people from the clutches of poverty, ignorance and diseases by continuously putting in place necessary structures aimed at improving their conditions of living.

Addressing the lawmakers, Fayemi said his administration was not interested in abandoning the ongoing capital projects in view of the resources already committed to them.

On security, the governor declared the intention of his administration to set up Rapid Security Monitoring Unit with the assistance of the Nigeria Police Force aimed at improving security of lives and property in the state

Revenue sources

He said N1.8 billion had been set aside in the 2011 budget for the payment of pensions and gratuities of retired workers to build a motivated and efficient workforce

The expected revenue to fund the budget, according to the governor,  shall accrue from statutory allocation, Value Added Tax, Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, Augmentation, Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, and External Grants.

Others are Millennium Development Conditional Grants, reimbursement from Federal Government on roads, internal loans/bonds, ecological funds and other sundry income.

The  budget presentation was not without a mild  drama by the lawmakers, as all the 13 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lawmakers in the assembly protested who should sit in the position of Deputy Speaker.

The position of the Deputy Speaker  became vacant following the death of Mr Saliu Adeoti ,an Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN]lawmakers representing Moba Constituency1 in the House

For almost one hour, the lawmakers held on to their position that they are yet to have the Deputy  Speaker in the House

The former Leader  of Government  Business, Mr Lai Oke who raised a Point of Order that the procedure adopted in picking Mr Gbenga Odebunmi was faulty and insisted that the PDP lawmakers would not accept Mr Odebunmi as their Deputy Speaker

It was at this point the speaker of the House decided to suspend any further discussion on the issue of Deputy Speaker before the governor was urshered in for the presentation of the budget