President Buhari and the leaders of the national assembly have been given 14 days ultimatum by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to cut the National Assembly and the Presidency budget instead of the proposed slash in health and education budget or face legal action.
In a statement, SERAP said it wrote both the executive and the legislative arms of government to reverse the proposed cut of N26.51 billion and N50.76 billion in health and education sectors respectively.
It said the poorest in the society would suffer if budget cuts to the sectors were made and questioned why the budgets of the National Assembly and the Presidency were not trimmed instead.
“According to our information, your government has proposed to drastically cut basic healthcare budget by N26.51 billion, that is, from the N44.49 billion initially budgeted down to just N17.98 billion. Your government has also proposed to cut the education budget by N50.76 billion, that is, from the N111.78 billion initially budgeted for UBEC down to just to N61.02 billion,” the statement reads.
SERAP said cutting healthcare budget would adversely affect the government’s response to COVID-19 and education budget slash would result in 16 million out-of-school-children remaining on the street for many years.
It said the authorities should have prioritised cuts in National Assembly and Presidency budgets to increase the allocations to healthcare and education.
“If the cuts are sustained, Nigerians will become justified in thinking that the government and the leadership of the National Assembly do not really care about improving access of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people to basic public services like healthcare and education.”
It proposed reduction in the funds allocated to over ten items in the budget of the federal Legislature, including basic salary, wardrobe, hardship, furniture allowances.
“The authorities have a lot of choices as to what to cut but chose to balance the budget on the backs of the most disadvantaged,” SERAP stated.
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