The Nigeria Labour Congress, Akwa Ibom State chapter, has asked the state government to allocate adequate resources to education, health, science, and technology in the 2016 budget.
The state NLC chairman, Mr. Etim Ukpong, said that the development of the state depends on adequate funding of the three key sectors of education, health, science and technology.
Ukpong stated this during his presentation at the 2016 Budget Briefing/Public Hearing, organised by the House Committee on Appropriation and Finance in Uyo on Friday.
He added that funding the three key sectors would drive the economy to the desired level, particularly during the periods of dwindling economy in the country.
He called on the state government to review the current free education policy to make it more realistic.
Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Usoro Akpanusoh, stated that the public hearing was organised to ensure that the public make their contributions to the budget before consideration by the House.
“Where the citizens do not participate in budgetary process, good governance is not guaranteed in the state,” he said. According to him, in view of the current decline in the global price of oil, the state needs to look inward and increase its Internally Generated Revenue to implement the 2016 budget.
He said, “Revenue is the ‘breath of the nostril’ of every government. We must expand our revenue base greatly, so as to significantly enhance our IGR even beyond the amount estimated in the 2016 proposals.”
He explained that the assembly would ensure effective monitoring as well as evaluate the implementation of projects and programmes as contained in the budget.
Speaker, Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, Mr. Onofiok Luke, asked the people to take a critical look at the budget and make their sincere contributions to make the budget better for the people.
Luke added that the best way for the stakeholders to have the gains of democracy, was to make inputs into the budget and not by criticising the government after the budget had been passed.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, had on December 22, 2015 presented the 2016 appropriation bill of N426bn to the House for consideration
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