The public hearing on the 2020 budget proposals presented by Governor Udom Emmanuel to the seventh Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly for approval has sparked another serious concern on the health status of the state government-owned industries.
Though it is claimed that Udom Emmanuel administration has established more than 15 industries, Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company Ltd, Kings Flour Mill, Ethanol Plant, Sweet Factory, Gabriel Coconut Processing Factory, Garri Processing factory, Plywood Processing Factory, Metering Solutions Manufacturing Services Ltd (MSMSL), AKEES Pencil Factory and Greenwell Technologies producing fertiliser, among others are the prominent ones.
But Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Akwa Ibom Council, one of the critical stakeholders in the industrialization boardroom has expressed worry over the health of the industries based on what it sees as “a paltry three per cent the state has budgeted for education in the 2020 financial year,” which, it sees as the bedrock of the programme.
According to Comrade Iboro Ibara, the state vice chairman of the labour congress, “We have seen over the years an undue prioritization of allocation to the economic sector and in particular road construction. We all agree here that the world is fast becoming a global knowledge economy and we have to look at expenditures particularly on education if we want to prepare for industrialization.”
The labour body expressed this concern in its position paper presented during a one-day public hearing on A bill for a law to appropriate monies out of the consolidated revenue fund and capital development fund to the service of Akwa Ibom State Government and for other matters connected therewith organised by House Committee on Appropriation and Finance and held at the House of Assembly premises, Uyo.
Ibara who represented Comrade Sunny James, the NLC chairperson in the state noted “I want to posit on behalf of labour congress that industrialisation without appropriate linkages to other sectors of the economy may not bring about the much-desired economic development and poverty alleviation. If it happens that the critical skills required by the industries are not easily available among our citizens, those jobs will be outsourced.”
NLC further observed “Also, we have to be careful because a lot of industries may bring about a situation where there is complete repatriation of profit. Where the profit is domiciled or taken away by the foreign investors, we may not have economic development. So, we have to balance our expenditure on economic Overhead and Fiscal Overhead and Social Overhead Expenditure.
“The chairman, we are concerned about the fate of our industries and we want to be sure that we are not being sabotaged because as we speak, some of the signature industries that were commissioned for the provision of jobs and alleviation of poverty have become comatose. Mr. Chairman, we urge the house to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the comatose state of some of these industries,” the labour movement pleaded.
Apart from this, NLC drew the house attention to poor patronage in technical education seen as a nexus to industrialization. “Therefore, we have to plan to have Mechanical Engineering departments in our schools and resuscitation of the technical colleges. As we speak, we do not have many Akwa Ibomites who can repair Automated Machines, ATM in Uyo and we are thinking of cashless bank system.
“And if we do not have our sons and daughters who can handle these things, then we are not prepared for the future. Recently, we had a Chinese firm- Opay- that came in and we have seen the kind of employment it has created very simply. That is what happens in the Information, Communication and Technology, ICT, sector which Akwa Ibom is lacking behind,” the labour congress posited.
Worried about a drop in Consolidated Revenue Fund, it said “Mr Chairman, we noticed that there is a reduction in the Consolidated Revenue Funds provision in the 2020 Appropriation by 8.42 per cent or N10.75 billion from what was provided in the 2019. The CRF consists of provision for pensions and gratuity, among others. We are concerned about the preparedness of the government for the increases in pensions and gratuity which were expected to rise from the implementation of the harmonised pensions. Every time there is a wage review, pensions also have to be reviewed. So, if we are reviewing pensions upwards and at the same time we are downsizing the Consolidated Revenue Fund provisions in the budget, then we may be working at cross purposes.
“We have looked at the required macro-economic fundamentals. We are okay with what has been adopted- the 55 dollar per barrel and 2.18 million. But we are concerned about the participated Internally Generated Revenue of N52.556 billion in 2020. Now the reality of previous years make us to be circumspect about the possibility of realizing this N52.556 billion in 2020. So, we plead that this house put right things in the right place to compel the revenue generating agencies to completely automate and computerise their operations. That is the way we will succeed to increase revenue.”
On the surging debt profile of the state government, the labour movement cautioned, “We have looked at a debt profile of our state and we beg the house to compel executive to put forward a Debt Management Bureau so that we could evolve a debt management strategy so that this debt burden will not become a problem for future generations.”
“Mr. Chairman, we have noticed that our wage bill appears very rigid. Lagos State government employs more than 100,000 civil servants. Kaduna State government in 2016 employed 33,000 teachers. When we compare the Recurrent Expenditure especially the Personnel Cost of those other states with what we have in Akwa Ibom including the Overhead Cost it gives us cause for concern. Mr. Chairman, I want us to take a critical look at at the Personnel Cost and Overhead Cost because compared to other states, we are running a very high Personnel and Overhead Costs,” NLC called on the house.
On fiscal governance, the council recommended, “We urge this house to once more revisit the issue of fiscal governance. This house was among the first in the country to have passed Fiscal Responsibility Bill. It was a phenomenal development. It was a landmark development but as we speak we do not know the effect of the fiscal responsibility which was passed by the sixth Assembly into law.
“We do not know why it has not been signed and gazetted. Mr. Chairman, we urge this honourable house to revisit that matter with a view to bringing the bill on board,” it added.
