SERAP drags Buhari, NASS to UN over cuts in health, UBE budgets

SERAP drags Buhari, NASS to UN over cuts in health, UBE budgets
Asks it to stop the spending of N27bn for renovation Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an urgent appeal to three UN special rapporteurs urging them to use their “mandates to urgently request the Nigerian government and the leadership of the National Assembly to immediately reverse the unlawful, disproportionate and discriminatory budget cuts to education and healthcare, and to stop the authorities from spending N27bn to renovate the National Assembly complex.” 

The special rapporteurs are: Ms. Koumbou Boly Barry, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Mr. Dainius Puras, Special Rapporteur on the right to health; and Mr. Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

In the revised 2020 budget approved yesterday, the Federal Government reportedly gave the National Assembly N27bn for the renovation of its complex, and cut health, Universal Basic Education budgets by over 50 percent. While the health budget is reduced from N44.4bn to N25.5bn, the UBE budget is reduced from N111.7bn to just N51.1bn. In the urgent appeal dated June 3, 2020, and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: 

“Nigerian authorities are putting politicians’ allowances and comfort before citizens’ human rights. 
The budget cuts show failure to address the growing economic and social inequality in the country, and to genuinely address the consequences of COVID-19 on the poor and marginalized groups.” 

According to SERAP: “Nigeria’s budget deficits are caused by excessive expenditures on politicians’ allowances and mismanagement. 

Nigerian authorities would only be able to commit to fiscal discipline if they prioritise cutting the allowances of lawmakers and the costs of governance in general, rather than cutting critical funding for healthcare and education.” SERAP said: 

“We believe that alternative policies and measures, such as reducing the costs of governance, including the excessive allowances for high-ranking public officials and the lawmakers, would have been a more appropriate solution to addressing budget deficits, as this would increase the available resources for healthcare and education, which in turn would contribute to reducing socio-economic inequality.” 

The urgent appeal, read in part: “Nigerian authorities also ought to show that the budget cuts to healthcare and education are necessary and proportionate, in that they must be justifiable after the most careful consideration of all other less restrictive alternatives, for example excessive allowances for Nigerian lawmakers, and excessive costs of governance, in general.”