My concern for the just concluded week will specifically focus on a proposal for cost-saving as the National Assembly prepare to engage Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions on return from the Christmas recess by the 9th January 2018. It will gladden my heart as well as millions of Nigeria is all these savings can be channelled towards job creation for numerous unemployed Graduates and skilled workers in various constituencies across the country.
Even if it is must N1 million annual salary and allowances, such investment will impact on several families. It is a known fact that most graduates collect less than N50,000 per month in public and private companies. So earmarking approximately N83,000 to each graduate will go a long way to reduce unemployment in the system and reduce the social vices and insecurity in the country, by my estimation.
For instance, going through the budget of the State House, I imagine if these expenses can be cut to accommodate the unemployed, nothing will be lost in the system and will in no way affect the smooth running of these entities. I keep wondering why all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies budget for kitchen utensils, sport, food, meal and refreshment which will gulp several billions of naira, yet they collect full salaries, allowances and other emoluments from government coffers.
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Looking through the summary of the total recurrent for the year 2018, the total sum of N6.185 trillion if not much will be spent and the higher sum will be appropriated since we adopt the same template(s) year-in-year-out. I keep asking, why all these frivolous spendings at the expense of critical developmental projects?
For the want of space let’s quickly highlight those cost-saving items specifically from the Presidency that may be of interest to the National Assembly.
These include: N8,580,741 for books; N11,793,200 for uniforms (where are the uniforms procured last year?); N30,187,032 for Sporting activities; N907,102,110 for purchase of motor vehicles (what happened to the fleet bought over the past two years?); N67,295,550 for purchase of library books and equipment (are we opening commercial bookshop? Whooping sums of money was proposed last year as well); N65,431,205 for Wildlife Conservation; N24,032,925 for purchase of sporting equipment for State House Sports Club (which competition are they going for?; N46,294,065 for Specialist attachment services (capacity building for the client).
This sub-head is questionable! N24,032,925 for purchase of plant nursery equipment for the production of local flowers, for routine floral arrangement, irrigation and upgrade of helipad grass field as well as N98,306,492 for food stuff/catering material supplies; N25,652,502 for refreshment and meals. All of these amounted to N1,232,231,650. This amount can guarantee a minimum of 1,232 jobs for unemployed youths in a year at the rate of N1 million annual salary.
Quite a several savings can also be made from proposed sub-heads for the office of the Vice President, Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Security Officer to the President, State House Medical Centre, State House Lagos Liaison Office, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President – MDGs (OSSAP-MDGs), NIPSS, Kuru; Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI), Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission and its centres can be looked into.
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As mentioned earlier, some of the sub-heads such as equipment like shredding machines, uniforms, kitchen utensils that could last for two or three years can be jettisoned and re-channelled into productive ventures.
However, I’m contained from looking into the details of the proposed N125 billion stipulated erroneously in the booklet (budget estimate) submitted to the National Assembly. But the actual amount mentioned in Mr President’s speech was N150 billion. This was because no specific breakdown/details were given in the booklet. I recall that the issue of non-transparency in the finance of the Legislature was thoroughly addressed over the years, except for last year (2017) when the National Assembly broke the age-long jinx by releasing the skeletal details of its budget. For this year, we will be watching how responsive the National Assembly will be or otherwise.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara celebrated his 50th birthday anniversary in a grand style precisely on the 26th December 2017 where he associated with the Orphans and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the nation’s capital city. While the Church Service was going on, delegations comprising of members of the House of Representatives visited 19 Orphanages and some IDP camps where they donated several items ranging from Mattresses, Foodstuff, beverages, toiletries, among others, with a promise to donate the entire money raised through various programmes rolled out to mark the birthday celebration, including Novelty Football Match and Book Launch titled: Dogara, a reed made flint.” For me, it was highly rewarding to facilitate with Mr Speaker in the company of several political warlords and captains of industry who donated/pledged generously (about N300 million) towards his vision of alleviating the sufferings of the less privileged in our society. I wish to formally wish Mr Speaker, happy birthday and many happy returns.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
