The Senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, has condemned the yearly recurrent expenditure component of the national budget of the Federal Government. The senator described as worrisome and dangerous the money being paid as personnel and overhead costs despite an embargo placed on employment by President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
Ndume threatened to exit Nigeria and relocate overseas if relevant authorities refused to put necessary arrangements in place to arrest the ticking time bomb.
Tracknews Online understands that the lawmaker expressed himself during the submissions by the Chairman of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, Mr Ekpo Nta while defending his agency’s 2021 budget before the Senate Committee on Establishment on Thursday.
According to him, the NSIWC boss is supposed to know the total wage bill of the Federal Government workers.
Ndume reiterated that such information would have helped the legislature to arrest the dangerous trend of increases in the yearly recurrent expenditure component of the budget.
He stressed that the rising increment of wages and salaries without new recruitments and constant retirement of workers on yearly basis was unjustifiable.
Ndume said: “Honestly speaking, a time bomb is ticking out there with this policy because of the doors shut out against millions of youths seeking employment through the embargo.
“Making it worrisome is the fact that despite the policy, since 2018 till now, recurrent expenditure components of yearly budget have been increasing.
“In 2018, it was N3.5trn; N4trn in 2019; N4.5trn in 2020; N5.6trn in 2021and N6.83trn in the projected N16.39trn in the 2022 budget.
“It is bad for recurrent expenditure to be increasing on yearly basis without an increase in the number of workforces through required recruitments. The embargo is turning into a time bomb that can explode at any time as witnessed in some countries in the recent past.
“Personally, I’m already thinking of where to run to if the avoidable crisis is not averted. I visited Ghana and Niger recently in this regard,” he said.
