Ayade presents N277.7bn 2021 budget of ‘Blush and Bliss’

Ben Ayade, the governor of Cross River, has presented a budget of N277.7 billion for the 2021 fiscal year to the state house of assembly.

Presenting the proposed budget to the house on Thursday, Ayade said the budget is different from the previous ones because it was designed to focus on the people rather than infrastructure.

He also said the budget was tagged ‘Blush and Bliss’ to emphasize the shame of the government in forsaking “the big dreams of kinetic crystallization, from our olimpotic agenda and reducing ourselves to a consumptive effort just to reflect the mood of the times”.

Over the years, Ayade has tagged the state’s budget with unusual and stylish names.

In 2016, the budget was named, “Budget of Deep Vision”, while that of 2017 and 2018 were named “Budget of Infinite Transposition” and “Budget of Kinetic Crystallization” respectively.

In 2019, it was “Budget of Quabalistic Densification” and 2020 was “Budget of Olimpotic Meristemasis”.

The governor said recurrent expenditure takes up 69 percent of the budget and capital expenditure, 31 percent.

Ayade said the recurrent expenditure budget would be used to cushion the economic impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic and the #EndSARS protests on the residents of the state.

“Of the budget estimates, the sum of N192,511,985,550 represents the recurrent expenditure which is 69% of the budget, ” Ayade said.

“Inside this 69 percent, 70 percent is warehoused for youth development, job creation, massive opportunity to lift people from poverty, humanitarian services, conditional cash transfer, everything that has to do with values of humankind.

“31 percent which amounts to N85, 196, 800, 000 is set aside that has to do with infrastructure, water resources, foreign relationship, information system, climate change and also strengthen our social media unit.”

On his part, Eteng Jonas Williams, speaker of the state house of assembly, commended the governor for approving the employment of 20,000 workers into the state civil service and the indefinite suspension of tuition fees by indigenes of the state in Cross River State University of Technology.

He added that the assembly will ensure that the 2021 budget is passed to drive growth in the state.