The former Vice President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has linked Nigeria’s plunging economy to the ‘insufficiency of the budget’.
He decried the plans of the Federal Government to have a budget of eight trillion Naira and later came to the floor of the House to announce a budget of 6.3 trillion Naira.
“I think there were lots of excitements that the country would have an expanded budget – a budget that would be big enough to drive recovery.
“The Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo) also said that the budget would be between the range of eight trillion Naira, but when it was formerly announced by the President (Muhammadu Buhari) to the National Assembly, it was about 6.3 trillion Naira which is an improvement from where we are coming from.
“But honestly speaking, I would commend the National Assembly for the excitement to debate the budget”, Mr Issa Aremu said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
The former Vice President of the NLC said: “If you ask me what they are debating – 6.3 trillion Naira is extremely very token for the recovery of 197 million people”.
Giving suggestions on how the government could make the budget bigger, Mr Aremu was of the opinion that the debate should be taken outside the box of sharing something which was far from being enough and thinking of how to grow the base.
“I find the budget is quite exciting, the President spoke of job creation, growing the economy among others, but honestly, I haven’t seen practical policies that will drive this.
“I think President Buahri should call a stakeholders’ meeting for the manufacturers,” he said.
He stressed that the government could help key sectors that would drive the recovery of the economy and support the budget with a practical force.
“I look forward to seeing the practical effects to be reflected in the budget.
“The government needs to focus on key ministries that must drive recovery – Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industry, and Ministry of Labour,” he stressed.
