The Bayelsa State Government has adopted the bottom-up approach in the preparation of the 2027 Appropriation Bill as part of its commitment to an open and accountable governance structure where the people of the state would participate in key decision-making processes.
While a bottom-up approach is good, there is also the need to have a balance by keeping an eye on the economy to avoid grounding the ship of state.
Bayelsa State has used a bottom-up model for its budgeting process since
Governor Douye Diri’s administration officially adopted this participatory approach starting with the preparation of the 2021 state budget.
The government organised stakeholder interactive sessions in Yenagoa to allow citizens and community representatives to contribute directly to the budget-making process, aiming to prevent misplaced or duplicated projects.
The state has continued to utilise and reaffirm this participatory framework in subsequent budget cycles, including the ongoing 2027 budget, except for the 2025 budget.
On Thursday, Bayelsa State organised a Critical Stakeholders Public Interactive Session for the Preparation of the 2027l budget in Yenagoa, where Diri assured that his administration would continue to strengthen systems that would promote the tracking and reporting of budget implementation in order to ensure the proper utilisation of public funds.
Diri, who was represented by Peter Akpe, his deputy, stated that his administration had always partnered civil society organisations, the media and the citizenry to promote transparency, accountability and good governance.
He explained that the interactive session was organised to enable people from all walks of life to contribute to the budget-making process using the bottom-top approach.
According to him, the citizens’ budget that would follow the interactive session would be made public for every Bayelsan to see how public funds are being utilised in the state.
‘So, let me set out what this administration hopes to hear from you today, so that the 2027 budget is a better instrument than the one before it. Firstly, we want to know what has worked and what has not, in your community, in your sector, and in your daily experience.
‘If a project in the current budget has not been felt on the ground, tell us. If a road has been completed but the drainage was forgotten, tell us.
‘Secondly, we want your help in setting priorities. Our needs are many and our resources, though improving, remain finite. Between the completion of ongoing projects and the commencement of new ones; between physical infrastructure and human capital; between the urban centres and the riverine communities; we must choose, and we would rather choose with you than for you.
‘Thirdly, we want to hear from those whose voices are too often absent when budgets are made: women, young people, persons living with disabilities, and the communities that have carried the environmental cost of oil production for more than 60 years.
‘Distinguished stakeholders, this administration has committed itself to open and accountable governance, and we intend to keep faith with that commitment. The Citizens’ Budget that will follow this exercise will be published in plain language so that every Bayelsan can see where public money is going.
‘We will continue to strengthen the systems that track and report on implementation, and we welcome the partnership of civil society and the media in holding us to what we have written,’ he stated.
Maxwell Ebibai, Commissioner for Finance, in his presentation, gave an account of the 2025 budget performance which he puts at 86 per cent.
The commissioner, who was represented by Timipre Seipulo, Technical Adviser on Treasury, Accounts and Revenues, said the state received total actual revenues of N1.13 trillion, which represented a 328 per cent increase from the N926 billion received the previous year.
Ebibai explained: ‘However, when we prepared the budget for 2025, what we budgeted for revenue was N1.294 billion. So what it means is that we were able to achieve 86 per cent of our budgeted revenue for 2025.
‘Recurrent expenditures for 2025 was N274.78 billion against N329 billion in the previous year, represented a 17 per cent reduction, while our budget for 2025 recorded expenditure was N309 billion, which also means that we were able to achieve 89 per cent of our budgeted recurrent expenditure for 2025.
‘While our capital expenditures for 2025 came to N838 billion against the previous year’s figure of N596 billion, representing 41 per cent or 85 per cent of our budgeted figures.’
Burutolu Samuel, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, explained that the interactive session was organised to enable the government to interface with the people to identify priorities in terms of needs and collectively determine the development direction for the state in the next fiscal year.
He encouraged citizens to participate actively in the budget making process to enable the government to come up with a people-centred budget whose implementation would lead to the delivery of tangible improvements in the lives of the people.
In the interactive session, Moses Teibowei, Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, said the administration had made significant progress in the area of development of infrastructure, especially in the construction of roads linking the hinterland.
He disclosed that the state has given approval for the rehabilitation of internal roads in Yenagoa, particularly Old Okaka Road, adding that the administration has a good working relationship with federal agencies, particularly the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
‘I can tell you that all the roads l have mentioned, including the PDP Road, have been visited. Just yesterday (Wednesday), the governor approved for the central procurement board to award contracts for the rehabilitation of the Old Okaka Road.
‘So, I want our people to be rest assured that His Excellency will still give approval for the other roads to be rehabilitated. But l strongly believe that at the end of this month, the Okaka road will be properly fixed,’ Teibowei said.
Mary John and Leah Amara, representing women groups, Johnson Theophilus and Amuso Henry, who represented Community Development Committees (CDC), Charles Peletiri, represented the youths and Grant Ekisa, who represented traditional rulers, were among the participants that made inputs at the event.
But, Warmate Jones Idikio, Director-General of the Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (YECCIMA), has urged the government to also watch the economic indices while listening to the people.
In response to BD Sunday inquiries on a citizens’ budget, Idikio stated: ‘Listening to citizens is good, but we must also listen to the economy.’
He said Bayelsa State deserved commendation for taking steps towards a citizen-led approach to the preparation of the 2027 budget.
‘At a time when public budgeting is increasingly expected to be transparent, participatory and responsive, asking citizens what matters to them is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
But there is a deeper question we must ask.
‘Is listening to citizens alone enough to produce a truly bottom-up development budget for Bayelsa?
‘My answer is no,’ he emphatically stated.
According to him, ‘Citizen participation tells the government what people need. But a development budget must go further. It must understand why people remain poor, why businesses remain small, why investors hesitate, why local production remains weak and what infrastructure and policy constraints prevent Bayelsa’s enormous resources from becoming wealth and employment.
‘That is where the depth of the recent engagement appears to have been missing. A genuine bottom-up budget should not simply be a catalogue of requests from communities.
‘It should be a structured process that moves from needs to constraints to priorities to economic opportunities to projects to investment to jobs to revenue to development.’
Idikio noted that the absence of YECCIMA and the organised private sector from participating in the event is a significant gap, as the Chamber of Commerce represents a different and indispensable dimension of the Bayelsa story.
‘For this reason, the absence of the Chamber of Commerce and organised private sector from the participation is a significant gap.
‘The Chamber represents a different but indispensable dimension of the Bayelsa story. Citizens can say, ‘We need a road.’ The business community can tell the government whether that road will reduce the cost of moving fish, agricultural produce or manufactured goods to the market.
‘Citizens can say, ‘We need electricity.’ Businesses can explain what reliable power would do to production costs, processing, employment and investment.
‘Citizens can identify a market that needs rehabilitation. The Chamber can help determine whether that market could become a regional trading centre, what products could flow through it, what logistics infrastructure is required, what financing businesses need and how government investment could crowd in private capital.
‘That is the missing economic layer.
Bayelsa cannot afford a budget that merely responds to social needs. It needs a budget that simultaneously addresses economic constraints,’ Idikio said.
He pointed out that the budgeting conversation should question why local government areas are not thriving economic hubs and what would unlock the inherent economic potentials.
His words: ‘Our budgeting conversation should therefore ask every LGA: What prevents people here from producing more? What prevents businesses from expanding? What prevents investors from coming here? What infrastructure would unlock economic activity? What value chains can Bayelsa develop? What expenditure today can create a larger productive and taxable economy tomorrow?’
Idikio explained that the questions need the government, citizens and the private sector to sit down at the same table to proffer workable solutions, stressing that the geography of the state made such a roundtable discussion more compelling.
He said the challenges of terrain, connectivity and dispersed settlements mean that each local government area has its own peculiar priorities which may differ from those of others.
To him, the determinant should not be on how popular a particular project may be, but the combination of need, economic impact, social impact, readiness, affordability and value for money.
‘These are questions that require the government, citizens and the private sector sitting at the same table. Bayelsa’s geography makes this even more important. In a state where waterways, difficult terrain, dispersed communities and inadequate connectivity can significantly increase the cost of doing business, a bottom-up budget must identify the binding economic constraints in each local government area.
‘For one LGA, the priority may be farm-to-market roads. For another, cold storage. Somewhere else it may be electricity, jetties, fish processing, digital connectivity, skills, access to finance or an industrial cluster.
‘The answer should not be determined simply by which project is most popular. It should be determined by a combination of need, economic impact, social impact, readiness, affordability and value for money,’ he stated.
‘This is the difference between participatory budgeting and development budgeting. The former asks citizens what they want. The latter asks: What does Bayelsa need to do with its scarce resources to create the greatest possible improvement in the lives and productive capacity of its people?
‘There is also another dimension. The private sector should not be invited merely to submit requests for government support. It should be challenged to bring something to the table.
‘Government should ask: ‘If we provide this infrastructure, what investment will you make?’ ‘If we reduce this constraint, how many jobs can you create?’ ‘If we develop this economic corridor, what businesses and industries can you establish?’
‘This is how the budget becomes a platform for public-private economic development, rather than simply an instrument for government expenditure,’ he pointed out.
Idikio said that Bayelsa’s 2027 Budget should therefore present an opportunity to take the citizen-led initiative to the next level and proposed a Bayelsa Bottom-Up Development Budget Framework where each entity can identify its peculiar needs.
‘I would propose a Bayelsa Bottom-Up Development Budget Framework, in which every LGA identifies its social and economic priorities; communities participate in defining needs; the Chamber of Commerce and organised private sector identify business and investment constraints; MDAs provide technical appraisal; and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning fits the priorities within a realistic fiscal envelope,’ he said.
He said each major project ought to answer five questions about the problem it would solve, how many people it would benefit, the economic activity it would unlock, what it would cost in its lifetime, and the measurable outcome the state would obtain from the expenditure.
Idikio stated that: ‘Every major project should then answer five questions: What problem does it solve? How many people will benefit? What economic activity will it unlock? What will it cost over its lifetime? What measurable outcome will Bayelsa obtain from the expenditure?
‘This is particularly important because a capital project is not automatically an economic investment. A government building may consume money without expanding the productive economy.
‘Conversely, a road connecting farms to processing and export markets may create a multiplier effect far beyond its original cost.
‘The objective, therefore, should be to move Bayelsa from budgeting for projects to budgeting for outcomes.’
However, he said the budget should not be criticised for being citizen-led, saying the next level of consultation should be a multi-stakeholder one because the government alone cannot design the development of the state.
‘The 2027 exercise should not be criticised for being citizen-led. It should be strengthened because it is citizen-led.
The next consultation should deliberately bring around the same table:
‘Citizens, traditional institutions, local governments, MDAs, legislature, labour, civil society, academia, Chamber of Commerce, organised private sector and investors, because Bayelsa’s development cannot be designed by the government alone.
‘And, perhaps, the most important question for the 2027 Budget should not be: ‘What projects do Bayelsans want the government to provide?’
‘It should be: ‘What can the government do with the people and the private sector to make Bayelsa more productive, investible, competitive and prosperous?’
‘That is the deeper meaning of a bottom-up budget. Listening to the people is the beginning. Understanding the economy is the next step. Converting both into investment, jobs, productivity and prosperity is the real objective,’ he concluded.