A World Bank Specialist and Team Lead of NG-CARES, Dr. Lere Esardo, has urged residents to look beyond government spending and demand evidence of the impact of budgetary allocations on their lives and livelihoods.
Esardo made the call on Tuesday at the 2027 Budget Consultative Forum for the Lagos Island Division, held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, stressing that citizens have an important role to play in holding the government accountable for how public resources are generated and utilised.
He said the consultative forum provided an important platform for residents to ask questions about government promises, assess what had been delivered and identify gaps requiring attention.
According to him, residents should not only be concerned about asking the government to spend more, but should also examine how revenue is generated and whether such revenue is being applied to address their needs.
He noted that Lagos residents contribute substantially to the state’s revenue through their businesses, ingenuity and hard work, adding that their contribution gives them a stake in determining how public resources are utilised.
“Spending is not enough,” Esardo stressed, noting that government expenditure should ultimately translate into tangible improvements in the lives and livelihoods of citizens.
He said the focus should therefore be on the relationship between revenue, expenditure and outcomes, stressing that budgetary spending must produce visible results on the ground.
The World Bank specialist also highlighted the NG-CARES programme, which he said was introduced as a response to the economic hardship experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and had subsequently expanded into a broader intervention programme supporting vulnerable Nigerians.
He disclosed that the programme had benefited more than 20 million people across the country, noting that the Lagos State Government had complemented the World Bank-supported intervention with its own resources to provide additional support for poor and vulnerable residents.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mrs Olayinka Ojo, said the consultative process was designed to ensure that citizens’ contributions lead to measurable government action and that residents could return to see evidence of progress on issues raised during previous consultations.
Ojo said the forum provided an opportunity for the government to present evidence of progress on projects and programmes arising from earlier engagements, while also giving beneficiaries and members of communities the opportunity to share testimonies on how government interventions were affecting their lives and livelihoods.
She said the process had transformed the forum from being merely an avenue for receiving requests into a platform for feedback, accountability and evidence-based engagement.
According to her, the views, requests and priorities expressed by citizens are documented, reviewed and transmitted to the relevant institutions, with prioritised and approved requests translated into government interventions.
The Permanent Secretary, however, emphasised that the consultation process does not end with the conclusion of the forum, underscoring the need for continued engagement and feedback between government and citizens.
Speaking on the budget process, the Chairman, House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, Hon. Sa’ad Olumoh, said Lagos’ development strategies continued to evolve in response to emerging challenges and the changing needs of the state.
Olumoh said the state’s Infrastructure Master Plan and Development Plan remained important guides for its developmental efforts, but stressed the need to connect the plans with the realities of what the government was delivering.
He described the consultative forum as an important stage in preparing the 2027 budget, explaining that stakeholders were being invited to present their priorities for the coming year so they could be considered in the budget proposal.
He noted that the inputs from the forum would be articulated and incorporated into the 2027 budget before being transmitted to the Lagos State House of Assembly for scrutiny and approval, after which the budget would be presented to the Governor for assent.
Olumoh said the process demonstrated the importance of engaging stakeholders in determining the priorities that would shape the state’s spending plans for the coming year, adding that the strategies guiding government programmes would continue to evolve in line with development challenges.
