A former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has said one of the reasons he was impeached during his administration was his refusal to inflate the government's yearly budget.

While speaking at the Nigeria Symposium for Young and Emerging Leaders which took place in Lagos on Tuesday, the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, revealed that one of the reasons he was impeached during his administration was his refusal to inflate the government’s yearly budget.

Peter Obi who spoke with the theme ‘Open Governance: Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government’, said;
“Government budget should be published, each item they want to spend money on should be published so people can compare the prices government are buying their items with what it is in the market,” said Mr. Obi, who was governor between 2006 and 2014.

“I have been a victim of that because budgets are not properly articulated, it’s inflated not even padded. I was impeached in Anambra State, removed from office twice, the first one is because of this budget issue.

“They want to repair Office of the Governor, which is my office, the approved budget for 2006 was N298 million, I repaired everything with N43.2 million. They said I didn’t do it through due process, because they have awarded the contract.

“The second item was repair of the Governor’s Lodge, which is where I live, everything was N486 million, I did everything with N81 million, they said it didn’t go through due process. That is to show you how government works, they input so many roadblocks.”

Obi said politicians as well as civil servants are responsible for inflated government budgets. “I keep saying it, if the leader is not stealing, you reduce it by 75 percent. Because anybody on the line will know.

“My first experience as a governor, was about headed paper. When I arrived, they said they were going to do headed paper. Because I came from a business and a private sector, I’m a trader, so when they said to do a ream of paper that I used to buy in my office N750, they told me it’s N15,000. I said ‘Ehn! What do you mean?’ They said they even reduced it from N18,000 to N15,000.

“I said ‘can you give me the sample?’ Maybe it’s different. They gave me the sample, I called my printer and told him to do me two reams of this. He came back and said it’s N1,500 each, so for two of them it’s N3,000, instead of N30,000. From there, I issued order: ‘All government expenditure in this state as long as I stay here would be approved by me.”

Obi said part of the problem with governance in Nigeria is that government is transactional, instead of transformational. “It depends on what I’m hiding because I’m hiding something,” he said.

“When I came into office in Anambra State, there was a panel for unpaid contracts, a big panel. When I came in, I said we don’t need this panel, you said you’ve done the road, let’s go and see it. They said ‘noo no no, the panel has approved it.’ I said ‘you said you have done this road, this road is in Anambra State, let’s drive there.’

“You don’t need the panel because everybody can see it. And when we checked and said for you to execute any contract, let the community say it’s been executed before we pay you, they started agitating.”

Source: https://www.mybae.mobi/forum/1/12/19/

K

Coughs***clears throat#....its quite unfortunate, one can't act normal in this abnormal world of ours..

chorus

liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeesssssss everywhereeeeeee

Dr Goodluck Jonathan -
" Corruption is not even amongst the three most important problems that Nigeria has..."

Peter Obi who spoke with the theme ‘Open Governance: Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government’, said;
“[b]Government budget should be published, each item they want to spend money on should be published so people can compare the prices government are buying their items with what it is in the market,” [/b]said Mr. Obi, who was governor between 2006

“They want to repair Office of the Governor, which is my office, the approved budget for 2006 was N298 million, I repaired everything with N43.2 million. They said I didn’t do it through due process, because they have awarded the contract.

“The second item was repair of the Governor’s Lodge, which is where I live, everything was N486 million, I did everything with N81 million, they said it didn’t go through due process. That is to show you how government works, they input so many roadblocks.”



THIS IS OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY....
the boldened is the only solution...

Peter Obi who spoke with the theme ‘Open Governance: Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government’, said;
Government budget should be published, each item they want to spend money on should be published so people can compare the prices government are buying their items with what it is in the market,
said Mr. Obi, who was governor between 2006

“They want to repair Office of the Governor, which is my office, the approved budget for 2006 was N298 million, I repaired everything with N43.2 million. They said I didn’t do it through due process, because they have awarded the contract.

“The second item was repair of the Governor’s Lodge, which is where I live, everything was N486 million, I did everything with N81 million, they said it didn’t go through due process. That is to show you how government works, they input so many roadblocks.”



THIS IS OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY....
the boldened is the only solution...

Inflating prices has eaten deep across board.

Was Peter Obi impeached? Cos last I remember he served out his tenure.

Why speak now? A beg go siddon. E b like say u dey eye one political office come 2019.

And every one keep blaming our leaders. Leadership is not a one man thing. Our leaders are the reflection of our society; they represent our value system, moral, integrity etc. This is wickedness in the highest place. After they will blame Obi for poor performance.

asksteve:
Was Peter Obi impeached?
Cos last I remember he served out his tenure.

It depends on your age. He was impeached

Flyingngel:
Why speak now? A beg go siddon. E b like say u dey eye one political office come 2019.

He has been speaking for long and a lot of people can attest to it

nawa

Peter Obi is the reason why Anambra state is doing good today.

Ipob jewdas will come and tell us he's just saying it for saying sake
"u dont know dat MAN, hes very humble, he use to buy guguru for me" dat MAN is perfect ehn, he use to lap me ti Skul"

Awon ode generation.
Oga Peter chukudi, park well, na only ur mumu shidren from d baby factory side of naijiriya go vote u

asksteve:
Was Peter Obi impeached?
Cos last I remember he served out his tenure.

He was impeached 2 times but fought his way back those 2 times through the courts.

Esseite:
Peter Obi who spoke with the theme ‘Open Governance: Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government’, said;
Government budget should be published, each item they want to spend money on should be published so people can compare the prices government are buying their items with what it is in the market,
said Mr. Obi, who was governor between 2006

“They want to repair Office of the Governor, which is my office, the approved budget for 2006 was N298 million, I repaired everything with N43.2 million. They said I didn’t do it through due process, because they have awarded the contract.

“The second item was repair of the Governor’s Lodge, which is where I live, everything was N486 million, I did everything with N81 million, they said it didn’t go through due process. That is to show you how government works, they input so many roadblocks.”



THIS IS OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THIS COUNTRY....
the boldened is the only solution...

true that, but it doesnt just end there, the senate has published its budget for 2017, check back in 2018 you would still see same lines occuring again, monitoring, how can the budget be monitored to be sure projects are executed to standard?for the 37 "states" 774 lgc, ministries and parastatals, thats the real problem, but if the majority of the "projects" are executed by the lgc everyone can easily hold his respective lgc to account and thats exactly what you get in countries where things are working, you pay your tax which is the incentive to hold your "lgc" or mayor to account and the fg is only involved in key policy making, national security, foreign relations or other major projects and not in running "unity" schools, mushroom hospitals, building 2nd niger bridge and other nonsense that should be left to lgc

Here we go again.....valid points anyway.

And he refused to hold council election throughput his tenure...

Oga Peter Obi, you used to be quieter, you con dey talk so much these days o.......
What's brewing

nwabobo:


He was impeached 2 times but fought his way back those 2 times through the courts.

True talk