Senior Programme Offi cer, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Isah Garba, has said that the social media “can be used in checkmating glaring and avoidable inconsistency in the planning and implementation of budget.” Speaking at a quarterly budget forum organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Development(CITAD) at the Niima Guest Palace in Kano yesterday, Garba said the “citizens are at an ample liberty to know their leaders and what they are doing to fulfi l their mandate, if the social media is eff ectively utilised.” He said the lack of consistency in budget planning and implementation had constituted a cog in the wheel of the expectation of the electorate to access the dividends of a promising democratic dispensation. According to him, with the social media on constant
off ensive, political offi ce holders in positions of authority would strive to fulfi l their pressing obligations. He said in cases of apparent systemic failure as regards an eff ective and foul free budget, the social media “can pin-point areas where lapses were committed in a way that can ease the job of practitioners of conventional media to the good advantage of the electorate.” He affi rmed that once such an opportunity was lost, the issue of inconsistency would never be sorted out. He pointed out that in any budget business, the issue of including stakeholders must be accorded high priority for the objective of eff ective service delivery to reach fruition. Garba said the issue of judicious management of fi nancial resources could only be feasible with the contribution and input of respective stakeholders taken into cognisance. Speaking in the same vein, CITAD Programme Coordinator, Malam Isiyaku Garba, said the genesis of organising the quarterly forum was to ginger the confi dence of stakeholders and leaders of various Community Based Organisations (CBOs) on understanding the nitty-gritty of budget planning and sustainable implementation.
