The Ekiti State government has set aside a sum of N1.9bn to build a new Governor’s office and a high court complex in the state capital. The state’s Commissioner for Works and Transportation, Funmi Ogun said the two projects, when completed will be an addition to the existing legacy of Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The construction of the high court complex will take N1.299bn and the Governor’s office will cost N687m. Currently, Ekiti state has 8 High Court divisions and a Governor’s office. Apart from the proposed expenditure for the newly proposed judicial complex, N35m has been allocated in the state’s 2016 budget, for the renovation of the High Court buildings in 7 Judicial Divisions.

The reasons given by the government for the capital projects
 “The High Court we are presently using was inherited from the old Ondo state and constructing a new one of our own will afford us the opportunity to put state-of-the-art equipment,” said Funmi Ogun.

“Ekiti will clock 20 years on October 1, 2016 and we have to embark on projects that will make Ekiti a developing state that can compete with other capital cities in terms of infrastructure.”

…but are they good reasons?
Of course, it is fine for the government to spend on structures that will create a better environment for its judicial workers. The current Governor’s office in Ekiti state was inherited from the old Ondo state. So, it is not a bad idea for a state that is almost 20 years old to think of expanding its governor’s workplace.  

However, there is need to spend wisely at this time. Nigeria is in a recession, and the allocations to states are dwindling. In May this year, Ekiti state got only N1.267bn as net allocation from the federal government, an amount that was not enough to pay the salary of workers. Subsequently, the state got N2.5bn in June and the same amount in July. At the state level, the salary of workers totals N2.6 billion monthly.

In June, workers in the state embarked on strike over their unpaid 6 months salaries. The financial condition of the state has not gotten any better since then. Ekiti state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is just about N600m monthly. This only has a little cushioning effect on the government expenditure.

In the light of the huge salary backlog that has to be cleared by the government, and the reality of recession, there should be no room for projects that won’t directly impact the life of the Ekiti people. Moreover, a harsh economic period like this should be a time for governments to cut down on their expenses. Ekiti state has too many judicial divisions. In terms of population, Lagos state is about 4 times larger than Ekiti, and it has just 4 judicial divisions.

Fayose has promised the people of his state that his “government will only embark on projects it can complete”, but beyond that, the government should understand that it is not the best of time to spend on projects that are not profitable or those that will not improve the well being of the people.