Labor unions strongly criticized the Federal Government on Wednesday for reducing the supplementary budget allocation for wage awards to federal civil servants by N100bn.
They expressed concern, emphasizing that this reduction contradicted the prior agreement with the government.
According to information extracted from the recently Revised 2023 Supplementary Budget, noteworthy changes were made.
The contentious N5bn presidential yacht votes were exchanged for Navy barges, the defense budget saw an increase from N476.54bn to N546.21bn, and N20bn was designated for capital supplementation for the National Intelligence Agency.
The approved N2.1tn 2023 Supplementary Budget faced controversy due to the identification of seemingly extravagant items, leading to amendments by the National Assembly.
The initial projection in the proposed document estimated the four-month wage award to cost the Federal Government approximately N210bn. However, the approved and revised version indicated a reduction, with the cost now standing at about N110bn.
Additionally, the Ministry of Defence’s budget in the revised document experienced a notable rise from N476.54bn to N546.21bn, signifying an additional allocation of N69.67bn.
Under the ministry, the Nigerian Navy, which was earlier caught up in the controversial N5.095bn for the purchase of a presidential yacht, got an additional N25bn to its total allocation.
Its total allocation rose from N62.8bn in the proposed supplementary budget to N87.8bn in the approved document.
It also observed that the presidential yacht was replaced by the purchase of a self-propelled barge with the same amount of N5.095bn. Self-propelled barges are cargo-carrying vessels specifically engineered for operation on inland waterways.
The Nigerian Navy also got extra allocation for the construction of two buildings in Enugu and Ebonyi worth N3bn each.
About N19bn was also allocated for the purchase of two tugboats, which are used to pull or push other large ships for manoeuvring or salvage purposes.
The Defence Intelligence Agency got an extra N30bn to its total allocation, from N17.04bn in the proposed document to N47.04bn in the approved copy.
The PUNCH further observed that allocations to the Office of the National Security Adviser, headed by Nuhu Ribadu, increased by N20.3bn from N29.7bn to N50.02bn.
Similarly, the purchase of official vehicles for the office of the First Lady valued at N1.5bn remained in the budget, while the education loan fund for funding student loans was increased to N10bn from N5.5bn previously allotted.
Recall that the Federal Government, as part of steps to assuage labour unions, had granted a wage award of N35,000 to all Federal Government workers “beginning from September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.”
President Bola Tinubu had declared during his Independence Day speech that “low-grade workers” in the federal civil service would be awarded a wage of N25,000.
The amount was then increased to N35,000 following discussions with the organised labour unions. However, civil servants received a single payment of N35,000 for September only and not for two months as promised.
It is still unknown why the Federal Government decided to slash the allocation of wage awards for federal workers, but the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress warned that this would be resisted.
