The House of Representatives Committee on Environment decried on Thursday what it called the failure of relevant government authorities to fund the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria in a bid to curtail disease outbreaks in the country.
The Committee made this statement while hosting officials of the agency who appeared at the National Assembly Complex to defend its 2025 budget estimates.
The Committee, chaired by the member representing Burutu Federal Constituency, Delta State, Mr Julius Pondi, expressed displeasure that the agency is being starved of the necessary funding, contrary to the provisions of the law.
The Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker condemned the hardship experienced by the staff members of the agency, who, he said, received zero salaries in 2014. He questioned why the Budget Office of the Federation removed the agency and 14 others that had been reinstated into the budget by the Federal Executive Council.
The Committee listened patiently to the EHCN’s Executive Director, Yakubu Mohammed, who lamented the ordeal of his agency and pledged to meet with the Minister of Environment, Maruf Tunji-Alausa, to intervene in the 2025 budget proposal.
Pondi said, “We are already in constant touch with the Minister on how you can be brought back into the budget plan. We sympathise with you, but we are not happy about it. Every agency under our purview and oversight should get fair and free access to the budget.
“We will make our recommendations accordingly because we feel bad for the hardship the personnel, their families, wives, and children must have gone through.”
Mohammed, who expressed gratitude to the lawmakers for their support, disclosed that the council was removed from the budgetary allocation as a result of a government policy dated March 26, 2024, to discontinue funding of regulatory bodies in the health sector.
He noted, however, that the policy was reversed by FEC after numerous engagements between the 14 affected bodies, the budget office, and the Minister of Health.
He further stated that his council was denied funding due to classification issues, which placed the EHCN under the realm of environmental matters in the country.
The EHCN boss explained that despite the difficult operational conditions, the council played a key role in managing the Lassa fever epidemic in 21 states and the Maiduguri flood disaster in 2024, which earned the council special commendation from the Borno State Government.
Mohammed then sought the approval of the committee for the sum of N1.1bn for capital expenditure, N264m for overheads, and N1.7bn for personnel expenditure proposed in the 2025 budget estimates.