The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has declared that workers welfare must henceforth be given priority attention in the country’s national and state governments budget estimates within each given year.
In a statement by the NLC National  President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, last Wednesday in Abuja, the union said that the country’s national and state governments budget estimates for 2017 never properly captured workers welfare.
The union’s president explained that, budgets system is not transparent enough stressing that if you look at the estimate of this year’s budget, a lot of issues  have arisen especially the allocation for capital and current expenditure.
He added that, more importantly is the fact that a lot of issues pertaining to the welfare of workers have not been captured.
He further stressed that on the issue of pension, the congress is very certain and convinced, because there is a liability presently over N300 billion that is supposed to be accommodated in the budget for the payment of pensioners, but never included in the budget estimate of the Federal Government and all the state governments.
The NLC leader restated that the contributory pension scheme, that the orgnaised labour leadership had interfaced with the leadership of the national. Assembly to try to see how the scheme could be accommodated was adequately captured, stressing that, there are also some due allowances of the workers which also have not been earned but a portion of which has been provided in the 2017 budget.
He said that the budget has not directly affected the workers because some labour related issues were not adequately captured in the budgets of the federal and state governments, adding that, time is of the essence in the overall performance of the country’s 2017 budget.
Wabba bemoaned the late implementation of the budget, saying that, substantial time has been lost in the preparation that ought to have taken effect stressing that, the congress would support whatever needs to be done specially the implementation of capital projects that required putting in place critical infrastructure.
The NLC Leaders added that, the process and the manner of implementation of the national budget has certainly not been encouraging, pointing out that the budget needs to stimulate the economy and create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.
He noted that a study of the budget figures shows that major priorities were given to areas that do not address the fundamental issues that Nigerians are passing through presently.
Wabba called for a transparent budget, with input from various stakeholders and members of the nation’s critical sectors to ensure the smooth working of the budget to achieve the desired results.