By Moses John
Abuja
President of the Nigerian Civil Service Union (NSCU), Kiri Mohammed, said yesterday in Abuja that the Congress “will critically appraise the budget presented to the National Assembly yesterday by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Kiri, who is the Acting President of the NLC, said after the budget presentation by the President, the NLC Economic Commission “will do a critical appraisal of the budget and come out with its decision.”
He, however, said the nation’s workers expected the 2018 budget to perform better than the budget of the outgoing years, citing the rise in price of oil in the international market.
“If you follow the news, the price of crude oil in the international market has gone up and which means there is a lot more of resources available to government,” he said.
According to him, the economy is picking up and if the government is serious about its industrialisation plan, going side by side with the vision 20:20:20, then there will be mass employment.
He also urged government to commit to its anti-corruption war, saying there was the need for more recoveries and sanity in the system.
He called on government to pay attention to procurement process, lamenting that “something what should ordinarily take three months ends up taking eight months before being passed.”
On the non-payment of salaries, the labour leader said it was worse than the military era.
“We have never seen a situation where workers are seen as liabilities. Even during the military era, salaries were paid as at when due.
“I don’t know why salaries are regarded as liabilities while security votes are not so we are working in collaboration with NLC and other affiliate unions to tackle the situation because it affects all workers in the public services.”
