₦airaland Forum

However, SaharaReporters’ checks raise questions about the governor's claim, as official budget documents released by the state government contradict his assertions.

Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, at the weekend, dismissed reports that his administration spent N54 billion on school renovations, describing the figure as a mistake that was later retracted by its originator.

Otti was quoted by Saturday PUNCH as stating, “Even the issue of N54 billion, the original person who talked about it found out shortly after he spoke that he made a mistake and he decided to walk back his mistakes.”

“There’s something called State Transparency, World Bank State SFEAN. It is a programme by the World Bank that requires states to publish their budget performance. What is a budget? Budget is an estimate. At the end of the day, what is important is what cash is spent," he further said.

"If you check that website, you will see a figure of N2.1 billion. That’s what has been spent."

However, SaharaReporters’ checks raise questions about the governor's claim, as official budget documents released by the state government contradict his assertions.

According to the approved budget document for the 2024 fiscal year in Abia State, a sum of N64.725 billion was budgeted for the renovation/modelling of 51 schools at three schools per local government. By calculation, this would mean that each school renovation/modelling project is expected to gulp about N1.26 billion.

Budgetary provisions also show that the total allocation for the rehabilitation/repairs of public schools in the 2024 fiscal year initially stood at N67.4 billion, but was later revised to N69.03 billion.

Even if the governor was referring to “construction/provision of public schools,” the budgeted amount for that stood at N7.132 billion, according to official budget data.

Suppose the governor is not disputing the state government’s budget document. In that case, the data suggests that he may have misled the public with his claim that the N54 billion said to have been spent by the state was a budgeted figure and not actual expenditure.

At no point in the budget document was N54 billion quoted as the allocation for rehabilitation/repairs of public schools, or even for construction/provision of public schools.

The budget document indicated that ₦54 billion was not an allocated figure but rather the amount reported as spent between October and December 2024 from funds earmarked for school rehabilitation.


Budget Performance Vs Budget

A budget performance document shows how much of the amount budgeted the government has actually spent. It is usually published quarterly, with each quarter representing three months. At the end of the fourth quarter, a full-year budget performance is published, showing in layman’s terms what the government was able to spend throughout the year out of the approved budget.

A data review shows that in the last quarter of 2024 alone, the state spent N54.066 billion on rehabilitation/repairs of schools. The last quarter represents the period between October and December.

The total amount spent throughout the 2024 fiscal year (January–December) on rehabilitation/repairs of public schools stood at N58.323 billion.

Could Governor Alex Otti Be Unconsciously Referring to 2025 Budget Estimates?

The governor was also quoted as saying that only N2.1 billion was spent on school rehabilitation.

SaharaReporters subjected this claim to checks to ascertain if he could have mistaken the 2025 fiscal year for the 2024 fiscal year.

In 2025, the sum of N58.8 billion was budgeted for the rehabilitation and renovation of schools by the Abia State government. Between January and June 2025, a total of N4.9 billion was spent.

Zero naira was spent on construction/provision of public schools within the same period, according to the document.

It is also unclear how the governor arrived at the figure of N2.1 billion for school rehabilitation, as the budget performance documents uploaded by the state contained no such amount.

Before the governor's press briefing, SaharaReporters reported that between October and December 2024, the state government recorded N54 billion as spent on the rehabilitation/renovation of public schools.

In total, N58 billion was spent on rehabilitation/renovation of schools for the 2024 fiscal year, according to official budget performance documents of the state. Checks, however, show that in the previous year, 2023, only N956 million was budgeted for the rehabilitation/renovation of public schools, while as of the third quarter of the year only N25 million was spent on the purpose.

Meanwhile, the Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Development (FENRAD) has officially submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Commissioner of Basic & Secondary Education, Abia State Ministry of Education, demanding a detailed breakdown of the N54 billion.

According to the FOI request, FENRAD is specifically seeking information on the list of public schools that benefited from the N54 billion allocation, including their names and locations.

Furthermore, the organisation is requesting a detailed breakdown of the expenditure, specifying how the funds were spent on renovations, new constructions, procurement of educational materials, and teacher recruitment.

stuffs2002:
Peter Obi and his South East people will not see this level of corruption but let it be northern states, they will start running their mouths

004gist:
Otti can eat as far as he is working.

Sahara reporter should focus on tinubu and non performing governor and leave Abia n peter obi alone.

Appletek:
Otti is a short man with a long throat. It is that his long throat we will use to drag him. We go hold am like catfish.

As terrible as TA Orji was, in 2013, a poster living in Anambra said TA Orji was better than Peter Obi.
That is the failure you are packaging as a messiah.
We don't have short memories like you.

madridguy:
The obident best governor
Ndi We don't vote nonsense will avoid this thread.

Attached are picture of Kwara State Smart school and Abia smart school that Otti spent over 7 billion for.

If you like let them gaslight you, na dem vote rubbish pass for the whole Nigeria.

Moreze:
He is better than u and ur own governor. Dont u have a state and how is ur own governor performing.. we love the man call Oti and he is doing the work he promised

004gist:
Otti can eat as far as he is working.

He is the best governor.... An upright man.

If he says he spent 2.5 billion to rehabilitate schools... E shock una abi?

The rest money were used for either building new schools or key into other infrastructure in the school...

he said he only used 2.5 billion and not 50+

Sahara reporter should focus on tinubu and non performing governor and leave Abia n peter obi alone.

U hardly see them talk about labour party senators

Image123:
i constantly struggle hard to see the works going on in Abia despite the hype. i have no issues with the particular governor as we have several governors collected their best ever FAAC allocations and more than double the immediate past, but doing next to nothing worth showing. But please, don't hype mediocrity. This is 2025.

004gist:
Otti can eat as far as he is working.

He is the best governor.... An upright man.

If he says he spent 2.5 billion to rehabilitate schools... E shock una abi?

The rest money were used for either building new schools or key into other infrastructure in the school...

he said he only used 2.5 billion and not 50+

Sahara reporter should focus on tinubu and non performing governor and leave Abia n peter obi alone.

U hardly see them talk about labour party senators