Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secrets Reporters
As the economy continues to bite hard on Nigeria, the government of Cross River State, turning a blind eye to this reality, has earmarked over 398,000,000 million Naira on pageantries and North Fest Celebration.
The information was contained in the 2024 Cross River state-approved budget.
It was discovered that under the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Event Management, 198,000,000 million naira was approved for the Miss African Beauty Pageant.
The Miss African beauty pageant is an initiative of the former governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade. Among some of its aims and objectives, the pageantry aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere and end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture,
However, these aims and objectives tend to conflict with the biting economic reality in the country, as the approved budget for the event will go a long way to cushion the economic hardship in the state.
It was also discovered that the governor approved the sum of 100,000,000 million Naira for the North Fest Celebration Activities and 100,000,000 million Naira for the Miss Humanity programme.
Recall that in December 2023, the governor of Cross River State, Bassey Otu, signed the 2024 budget of N296.985 billion into law. The budget comprises N180 billion in capital expenditure and N116 billion in recurrent expenditure. The budget is about N96 Billion Naira higher than the N250 billion submitted to the state House of Assembly for consideration.
The governor noted that the increase was predicated on providing adequate financial support for persons with disabilities and to erase the social imbalance of special demographics as they are a vulnerable group.
“This increase will facilitate better access to healthcare, assistive technologies, education, and employment opportunities tailored to their capabilities; it is a fiscal decision and a statement of our values as a society.
“In addition, there is an upscale budgetary provision for payment of gratuity, debt services, counterpart funds, nutrition activities, social protection, climate change and gender-responsive budget,” he said.
