Participatory Budgeting in Nigerian Local Government Administration: A Panacea for Rural Development in Nigeria
Government annual budget is a public proclamation of its projected and actual expenditures which provide vital evidence of where a State sets its priorities. Therefore, this article seeks to show how the participatory budgeting offers citizens a large opportunity to learn about government operations and to deliberate, debate, and influence the allocation of public resources in the local government councils. Through a descriptive historical analysis, this study shows that the local government’s current budget processes reveal that citizens have no understanding of what the local government council is committing itself to in its policy declarations and what it actually does in its budgetary allocations. The extremely complicated, technical and esoteric nature of the budget-making process and documents does not allow citizens to participate, to have any say in it or to monitor the process, it is the position of this paper that participatory budgeting programs are implemented at the behest of governments, citizens, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society organizations (CSOs) to allow citizens to play a direct role in deciding how and where resources should be spent. It is a tool for educating, engaging, and empowering citizens and strengthening demand for good governance. It also enhanced transparency and accountability. More so, the study revealed that participatory budgeting helps reduce government inefficiency and curb clientelism, patronage, and corruption. Besides recommending encouragement of citizen’s participation in budgeting, community-based organizations, the civil society and the media should be involved and be stimulated to play the role of a conscience keeper on behalf of the poor and marginalized in the society.
