Akwa Ibom govt prefers football to public health, CLO says, criticising 2022 state budget

Akwa Ibom govt prefers football to public health, CLO says, criticising 2022 state budget

Criticisms have continued to trail the N582 billion budget proposal of the Akwa Ibom State Government for the 2022 fiscal year, which Governor Udom Emmanuel has titled the “Budget of Re-defining Standards”.

At a public hearing aimed at fine-tuning the budget into an appropriation bill at the State House of Assembly on Wednesday, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said that the state government has not shown enough transparency in the handling of state finances.

The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), for its part, frowned on the allocation of more resources to the Dakkada Football Club than the entire health sector in the state for 2022.

Reading from their position paper, the state chairman of the CLO, Mr Franklyn Isong, said: ‘CLO notes that Item No 61 – Dakkada Football Club – has a Recurrent Expenditure of N198,000,000.00, which is more than the Recurrent Expenditure for all the Health Centres in Akwa Ibom State put together.

‘This means that in 2022, the Government of Akwa Ibom State has more interest in football matches than the health of the citizenry.’

The body also wondered why provisions should be made to an ‘illegal institution’ in the state which even the governor refused to assent to a bill that could have legalised its existence.

‘CLO objects strongly to the inclusion of Item No. 10 “Akwa Ibom College of Science and Technology”, which is allocated N1,001,725,780.00. CLO observes that the college is an illegal institution that is not backed by law.

‘CLO notes that the Bill seeking to establish and/or upgrade the College was passed by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly in 2020 but, was not assented to by the State Governor. CLO notes that the lifespan of the Bill had long elapsed having overshot the 30 days constitutional period laid down in Section 100 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

‘CLO urges, on the strength of the foregoing, that Item No. 10, “Akwa Ibom College of Science and Technology”, should be deleted from the Appropriation Bill 2022. CLO also urges the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to demand a refund to the State Treasury the amount of money disbursed from the State Treasury out of the N985,589,500.00 appropriated for the College as Recurrent Expenditure in the 2021 Appropriation Bill.’

CLO also questioned the allocation of N339,799,480.00, as Capital Expenditure to Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC) saying it was unjustifiable, considering that the Commission is not going to conduct Local Government elections in 2022.

The state chairman of the NLC, Mr Sunny James, had also questioned the allocation of N5 billion to the non-income generating worship centre in the 2022 budget in addition to the N6.7 billion appropriated for the same project in 2021 and N5 billion expended on the same project in 2020 fiscal years, thus bringing total expenditure on the project to N16.75 billion over the period 2020-2022.

He also urged ‘the House of Assembly to interrogate the entry of N3.58 billion as personnel costs for the budget office in 2022. We have observed that this value is not reflective of the staff strength of the said MDA.’