By Governor Ahmad Aliyu sits at the head of a government that stopped mid-year, opened its own budget, and added billions to the one line that pays out packages to unnamed hands. The line coded 22021007 and titled Welfare Packages was lifted from N15,799,254,140 to N18,493,254,140, a top up of N2,694,000,000 written into the vote after the year had already begun. Findings by SecretsReporters show that this single overhead line now stands as the largest in the state, bigger than any other running cost the Sokoto State Government carries.
The spending matched the size of the vote. In the third quarter alone, from July to September, the Welfare Packages line consumed N4,110,530,065, and across the nine months to September it consumed N8,371,849,844.76, which is 45.3 per cent of the revised vote, with a balance of N10,121,404,295.24 still standing in the line for the final quarter of the year. No programme, no beneficiary list and no community stands against the billions that have already gone out of the line.
The figures around that line tell their own story. Sokoto State budgeted N758,700,526,537.89 for the year, took in N335,561,477,750.46 in nine months, a performance of 44.2 per cent, and spent N252,861,415,923.05, a performance of 33.3 per cent. Capital expenditure, the roads, schools, hospitals and water schemes the budget was sold on, crawled to N139,257,615,249.37 against a revised capital vote of N533,288,874,815.71, just 26.1 per cent delivered with three quarters of the year gone.
The state's own money barely featured. Independent Revenue, the taxes and fees Sokoto was to raise from its own people and businesses, was budgeted at N74,515,015,322 and delivered N14,867,765,580.22 in nine months, a performance of 20.0 per cent. The government that could not raise one fifth of its own revenue target still found the hand to raise the Welfare Packages vote by billions in the middle of the year.
Government House, the seat of Governor Aliyu himself, carried a revised total budget of N18,593,780,961.21 and spent N8,363,460,289.29 of it in nine months, 45.0 per cent, with N4,622,492,860.30 of that spending done in the third quarter alone. The overhead of Government House alone reached N6,505,803,861.04 in the nine months, running at 59.6 per cent of its revised vote, a burn rate more than double the rate at which the state's capital projects were delivered.
The security vote ran hotter still. Coded 22020604 as Security Vote (Including Operations), the line held N8,210,000,000 for the year and had consumed N7,155,291,451 by the end of September, 87.2 per cent of the vote, with N3,500,185,432 of it spent in the third quarter alone. Of every overhead line in the state, only debt repayment ran closer to exhaustion.
Vehicles took their own heavy share. Purchase of Motor Vehicles, coded 23010105, was revised to N22,827,685,922, and N8,506,988,365.33 of it had been spent by September, 37.3 per cent, with N2,212,593,820.74 spent in the third quarter alone. The vehicle vote, cut from its original N25,975,685,922, still stands larger than the revised Welfare Packages line that leads this report, and the two lines together account for billions poured into comfort and packages while capital delivery stood at 26.1 per cent.
The medical lines expose where the government's care is directed. Medical Expenses, International, coded 22021019, spent N230,301,400 of its N512,000,000 vote in nine months, a performance of 45.0 per cent. Medical Expenses, Local, coded 22021004, spent N179,578,914 of a revised N476,900,000, a performance of 37.7 per cent. More of Sokoto's money went on treatment abroad than on treatment inside Sokoto, in a state whose own hospitals and clinics are the only care most of its people will ever reach.
Refreshment and meals multiplied beyond recognition. The line coded 22021001 opened the year at N135,444,400 and was revised mid-year to N1,435,444,400, a tenfold jump of N1,300,000,000 added to food and drink. By September, N271,248,500 of it had been spent, with N207,279,000 of that spending done in the third quarter alone, more consumed in three months than the entire original vote for the year.
Honorarium and sitting allowance followed the same path. Coded 22021002, the line rose from N757,209,500 to N1,957,209,500 in the mid-year revision, and N813,290,000 of it was spent in nine months, 41.6 per cent of the revised vote, with N616,065,000 paid out in the third quarter alone. The state paid more in sitting allowances in one quarter than it paid in local medical expenses in nine months.
Even the bank charges were rewritten mid-year. Coded 22020901, Bank Charges (Other Than Interest) opened at N214,550,000 and was revised to N2,284,550,000, and the nine months charge of N1,862,471,401.54, which is 81.5 per cent of the revised vote, was booked entirely within the third quarter. Publicity and advertisements, coded 22021003, rose from N1,532,649,612.15 to N2,677,649,612.15 and consumed N1,101,672,391.51 in the nine months.
Debt ate the largest guaranteed share of all. Public Debt Charges, coded 2206, were revised to N21,263,000,000 and had consumed N17,486,848,856.43 by September, 82.2 per cent of the vote. Inside that total, Domestic Principal repayment, coded 220604, took N9,981,045,842.26 of its N10,028,000,000 vote, 99.5 per cent exhausted, leaving a balance of N46,954,157.74. Creditors at home were paid almost to the last naira while the state's own projects waited.
Set against those lines, the votes that touch ordinary people directly crawled. The Foreign Scholarship Scheme, coded 22021020, held N1,500,000,000 and spent N62,921,634 in nine months, a performance of 4.2 per cent. Meal Subsidy to Government Schools, coded 22050102, held N2,559,000,000 for feeding children in public schools and spent N544,687,186, a performance of 21.3 per cent. The scholarship child and the school pupil waited at the back of a queue that welfare packages, vehicles, honorarium and foreign treatment had already emptied.
Nowhere is there the name of a single person who received a welfare package, the name of a single community the packages reached, or a single word on what a welfare package consists of.
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