Members of the National Assembly are set to domicile their N80bn constituency projects for the 2024 fiscal year in the Federal Ministry of Labour to address the inadequate funding currently hampering its activities.
The Ministry is responsible for several parastatals (government-owned agencies) including the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) and the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).
They also included the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the National Productivity Centre (NPC), the National Industrial Court, and the Industrial Arbitration Panel.
The decision, based on ThisNigeria’s investigations, may not be unconnected with the rejection of the N10bn voted for by the Ministry in the 2024 budget as capital expenditure.
Already the Senate Committee on Labour has rejected the N10bn envelope budget and vowed to jerk it up tremendously to address the series of industrial crises confronting the ministry.
Constituency Projects are meant to take development to the nooks and crannies of the country through the active involvement of federal lawmakers.
It is believed that members of the House of Representatives in the 10th Assembly will get a total of N54bn for constituency projects as each of them would get N150m while their counterparts in the Red Chamber would get N200m each amounting to about N22bn.
A member of the Senate Committee on Labour, who spoke on conditions of anonymity yesterday because he was not mandated to disclose the information to the media, explained that the panel leadership had agreed to domicile their 2024 constituency projects votes in the labour ministry.
He said, “If we failed to address the issue of employment in Nigeria, poverty among the people would continue to grow.
“How can we tackle unemployment and constant industrial disharmony with N10bn? It is an impossible mission. So, we have agreed to jerk up the budget.
“One of the ways we want to go about it is that members of the National Assembly in both chambers would allow the ministry and the agencies under it to handle the projects.
“We believe through that many Nigerians would be empowered and they would add quality values to the nation’s economy. There will be harmony in the labour sector and our country will enjoy peace since many able-bodied youths will be gainfully employed.
“The Chairman of our committee has been mandated to communicate our resolve to the National Assembly leadership on the matter.”
*Senate says N10bn Ministry’s budget grossly inadequate
The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Simon Lalong, had while appearing before the panel on Friday, said industrial unrest would end in Nigeria if the Labour Ministry received adequate funding from the ministry.
The Minister who was in the red chamber to defend the ministry’s 2024 budget in company with the Minister of State Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, lamented the N10bn envelope approved for it by the Budget Office of the Federation.
Lalong said the ministry’s duties were principally to create jobs, promote productivity, and address workers’ welfare, adding that the only way it could succeed was to have sufficient funds to work.
According to him, strikes and other industrial disputes will be a thing of the past once there is adequate funding to tackle all labour-related issues.
He said, “If the ministry is well-funded, there will be no strikes in Nigeria. There were so many strikes ongoing during the budget preparation, and they mostly had to do with funding issues.”
One of the parastatals under the ministry, the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, has a budget of N1.4bn for 2024 operations.
The breakdown includes N785m for personnel costs and N332m for overhead expenses.
Speaking before the committee, the Director-General of the institute, Mr Issa Aremu, informed Senators that while the initial proposal by the institute was N2.6bn, it was cut to N1.4bn by the budget office.
Aremu, like Lalong, wondered how an institute charged with the responsibility of training 1,000 trainees in 2024, and another 1,350 in 2025, besides other core functions, could achieve much with N1.4bn.
He said, “This budget is very small, and it’s consistent with what the ministers have said. N2.6bn was our proposal, but this is what they are giving us, N1.4bn.
“It’s surprising that the parent ministry itself has a budget of N10bn, out of a national budget of N27.5trn. How can the ministry perform?
“The only way we can assist the President (Bola Tinubu) in its job creation agenda, is for us to be properly funded.”
Speaking at the session, a member of the committee and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator Mohammed Monguno (APC Borno State), called for a “fundamental reorientation in the budget office, especially about the envelope system.”
He added, “For a ministry like labour, the budget office should have reflected on the priorities of the current administration and ought to have raised the budget.
“As a committee, we have the power of appropriation and we shall look at the budget thoroughly to increase it to a reasonable size.” (This Nigeria)
