Sen. Ndume Accuses FG Of Poor Governance, Mismanagement, Threatens To Leave Nigeria

Senator Ali Ndume, Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, and member of the Committee on Establishment(APC/Borno South) on Thursday threatened to leave the country if the executive refuses to put things in order.

He also accused the Federal Government of mismanaging the economy and refusing to address the country’s unemployment crisis.

Ndume, who described the state of unemployment as a tick­ing time bomb, frowned at the failure of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to tell the upper cham­ber of the National Assembly the total amount of salaries and wages the Federal Government pays its workforce yearly.

He said this when the chair­man of National Salaries, In­come and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, appeared before the committee to defend the increase in recurrent expenditure component of the commis­sion’s 2022 budget.

Picking holes in the presenta­tion made by the NSIWC chair­man, Ndume condemned the yearly increases on recurrent expenditures of ministries, com­missions and agencies of government despite existing embargo on recruitment.

He said: “Honestly speaking, time bomb is ticking out there with this policy because of the doors shut out against millions of youths seeking employment through the embargo and retire­ments at the various agencies.

“Making it worrisome is the fact that despite the policy, since 2018 till now, recurrent expenditure components of yearly budget have been increasing.”

He added: “In 2018, the bud­get was N3.5 trillion, N4 trillion in 2019, N4.5 trillion in 2020, N5.6 trillion 2021 and N6.83 trillion in the projected N16.39 trillion 2022 budget.

“It is bad for recurrent expen­diture to be increasing on yearly basis without increase in the number of workforce through required recruitments.

“The embargo is turning to a time bomb that can explode at any time as witnessed in some countries in 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.”

Inhisremarks, the committee chairman, Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano, APC) directed the Head of the Salaries and Wages Commission to liaise with the Accountant General of the Federation and other management officials of IPPIS for required harmonisa­tion in arriving at total amount of salaries and wages the Federal Government pays per an num.

The NSIWC boss had earlier in his presentation lamented that his agency recruited last in 2008 and that the planned extension of year of service and retirement age for primary and secondary schools teachers, would further shut the door against fresh graduates.

Other members of the committee like Suleiman Kwari (APC, Kaduna North), Nicholas Tofowomo (PDP, Ondo Central) and the chairman of the com­mittee, Ibrahim Shekarau (APC, Kano North), aligned themselves with Ndume’s admonition.