Gombe Gov calls for creation of budget line for children in 2025 appropriation

By Samuel Luka

Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has called for the creation of budget line for children in the 2025 appropriations that will take care of Child-Sensitive Sectors in Nigeria.

The Governor made the call in a keynote address he delivered during the Northeast -states Strategic Policy Dialogue on Social Budgeting for Child-Sensitive Sectors in Nigeria in Gombe on Wednesday.

“One favourable wind on our side is that this dialogue came at the time we are at verge of preparing our budgets in the various states, for the forthcoming year 2025”, he said.

Represented by his deputy, Dr. Manasseh Daniel Jatau, the Governor pledged his administration’s resolve to towards taking Gombe State to the promised land of development particularly in the area of self reliance, upliftment of the needy and vulnerable residents of the State.

According to him, concerned individuals, scholars, international bodies have shown discomfort with the trend of things and feel that children have been always short-changed of virtually everything.

The Governor who commended the UNICEF for initiating the dialogue which he observed, aimed at not only addressing the issue but to reverse it.

Governor Yahaya while admonishing that proper planning, mobilization, allocation of resources, implementing and monitoring the utilization of the resources be done by the governments at all levels, noted that such trend will ensure that children with or without special needs are not denied their fundamental rights to education and health care.

The Governor further emphasized that such the move will also take care of social protection, safety both physical and social-hunger, eating balanced diet to avoid stunted growth, and other unpleasant diseases associated with malnutrition among the children.

“Even though we are talking about the children, children and children, the challenge is actually on us the leaders. This is on account of the fact the children are not in a position to prepare budget for themselves”, he said.

The Governor said “if properly comprehended, accepted and supported by political will, the Social Budgeting Dialogue, demands the increased public allocation and expenditure on and for children”.

He said there is the compelling need to explore for increased public allocation and expenditure in the North East geo-political zone of Nigeria as well as create a budget code for social protection in budgets at all levels.

Governor Yahaya who insisted that such budget line must be linked to the Social Protection, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, observed that it is a daunting task in the face of the troubled economy in the country.

“We have no option, children are the foundation of adults. The weak the foundation, of course, we know the rest”, pointed out.

While appreciating the stakeholders that include Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and others for attending the dialogue, the Governor advised them to ensure that the dialogue comes up with relevant, responsive, implementable and adaptable solutions that will stand the test of time, integrity, transparency.