Federal legislators in the House of Representatives has called for prudent utilization of funds as well as a reduction in the proposed domestic and external borrowings in the 2022 Appropriation bill being considered by the House and the Senate.
The lawmakers including Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Luke Onofiok, Minority Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Hon. Abubakar Kabir among others gave the charge during the debate on the general principles of the 2022 Appropriation bill.
In his remarks, Hon. Onofiok, who expressed delight in the N10 billion increase in the allocation for judicial officers, called for an upward review of the proposed N50 billion hazard allowance for medical doctors as part of measures toward reversing the exodus of medical personnel to other countries amidst the lingering pandemic.
He said: “Following from the above, there are plausible recommendations by the FG in the 2022 proposals which my constituents have asked me to share and then appreciate and look at it and commend it.”
“One of them ”, he said, “is the provision of about 50 billion for hazard allowance for medical personnel. We would recall that as part of the issues that led the medical personnel to go on strike is the hazard allowances which were not paid and e”en as of now those hazard allowances are quite very minimal.”
“We commend this effort of the Federal Government to capture this. I believe that this would stem the tide of industrial action in the health sector in 2022.
“It is also commendable in the sense that we are still fighting COVID 19, we know that the Federal Government had paid for about three months Covid-19 allowance and after that those allowances have not been paid. We know what are medical personnel are exposed to daily so there is a need for them to be paid these allowances so it can be a morale booster.
