Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
More than two years after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, many Nigerians still do not know how monies obtained and set aside for the pandemic response across the states in the country except Kogi State were utilized. Though the pandemic may seem over with the daily record of infections dropping, Nigerians need to know how these funds were used by their various state governments. Investigations by SecretReporters reveal how South-eastern states in Nigeria lavished the sum of N107,066,469,983.97 on the pandemic in 2020.
Following the outbreak of Pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the Chinese Health Authorities initially announced the discovery of the novel coronavirus illness in 2019, thus the name COVID-19, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
The new coronavirus outbreak was classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020.
With Egypt and Algeria as the third countries in Africa to recognize an imported COVID-19 case, the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria recognized its first case of COVID-19 in Ogun State on February 27, 2020. The index case included an Italian national who on February 24, 2020, boarded a flight from Milan, Italy, to Lagos, Nigeria, and then drove the same day to his company’s location in Ogun State.
According to CSSEGIS and Data/COVID-19, Nigeria has documented 259,000 cases overall since the index case, with 3,144 death cases.
Audit papers on the Open Treasury Portal obtained by SecretReporters, from August through December 2020, show that Abia State’s total recurring and capital expenditure on Covid-19 came to N31,102,771,426.55. While records on Enugu and Imo State were missing, findings show that Anambra State spent a total of N22,907,186,079.34. Ebonyi State spent a total of N53,056,512,478.08 over five months, bringing the combined spending for the three states to N107,066,469,983.97.
SecretReporters discovered the following information in a monthly breakdown of how the three states of Abia, Anambra, and Ebonyi made their covid budgets, spent the monies, the balances, and level of achievements:
Abia’s ultimate budget was N31,472,962,856 in August 2020, while the state spent N4,185,342,628 of that amount, leaving a balance of N27,287,620,228 and an achievement level of 13.30 percent. In September, it had a final budget of N31,472,962,856.00, a balance of N26,462,469,222.66 after expenses, and a level of achievement of +15.92%.
With a final budget of N31,472,962,856.00, expenses of N7,182,654,594.49, a balance of N24,290,308,261.51, and an achievement rating of 22.82 percent in October, it performed at a level above average.
The state budgeted N31,472,962,856.00 for November but only spent N8,238,734,147.81 of that amount, leaving a balance of N23,234,228,708.19 with a success rate of 26.18 percent. It had a budget of N31,472,962,856.00 for December, spent N6,485,546,422.91 of that, and had a balance of N20,817,708,401.00 with a 23.18 percent achievement level.
Meanwhile, Anambra and Ebonyi are simplified below:
Anambra
| Month | Final Budget ( | Expenditure ( | Budget Bal ( | Achievement ( |
| August | 13,912,738,275.00 | 3,363,688,060.39 | 10,549,050,214.61 | 24.18% |
| September | 13,912,738,275.00 | 4,687,556,021.84 | 9,225,182,253.16 | 33.6% |
| October | 13,912,738,275.00 | 4,795,403,313.55 | 9,117,334,961.45 | 34.47% |
| November | 13,912,738,275.00 | 4,950,449,405.28 | 8,962,288,869.72 | 35.58% |
| December | 13,912,738,275.00 | 5,110,089,278.28 | 8,802,648,996.72 | 36.73% |
Ebonyi State
| Month | Final Budget ( | Expenditure ( | Budget Bal ( | Achievement ( |
| August | 12,810,000,000.00 | 3,730,015,399.53 | 9,079,984,600.47 | 24.18% |
| September | 28,615,000,000.00 | 15,002,402,114.25 | 13,612,597,885.75 | 52.43% |
| October | – | – | – | – |
| November | 28,615,000,000.00 | 20,486,996,024.40 | 8,128,003,975.60 | 71.60% |
| December | 12,810,000,000.00 | 13,837,098,939.90 | 1,027,098,939.90 | 108.02% |
With the bizarre allocation of funds and spending for COVID 19 in the South-eastern states, many questions remain, including whether the expenditure were worthwhile because a state like Kogi didn’t succumb to the hysteria of the virus’s spread and never pushed ridiculous amounts of money into its response armaments. Residents in the affected states, who were subjected to untold hardship because of the Pandemic have also called upon relevant authorities to investigate and unravel why there are no corresponding lines between the money spent and the level of achievements, and if the balances from the funds were incorporated into the budgets of the subsequent months.
