For months now, the Organised Union have been at loggerhead with the Federal Government over the increase of the 30,000 naira minimum wage of Nigerian workers.
As we speak, that fight is yet to yield any result, despite the numerous strikes.
Reports of how no fewer than 30 state governments of the federation spent ₦986.64bn on recurrent expenditures came as a great surprise to Nigerians.
To make things worse, the said amount was spent in the first three months of 2024.
The expenditure covered refreshments, sitting allowances, travelling, utilities amongst others.
The Report
The states’ budget implementation reports were obtained from Open Nigerian States, a website supported by BudgIT that acts as a repository for public budget data
The reports were analysed for the first three quarters of the year.
Punch examined budget implementation data from thirty states.
However, data for six states were not available.
Benue, Imo, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto and Yobe States were the ones without Q 1, 2024 data.
Refreshment
In that report, 30 states spent ₦5.1bn on refreshments for guests.
Also, ₦4.67bn was spent on sitting allowances to government officials.
A whooping ₦34.63bn was pumped on local and foreign travel expenses.
Meanwhile, ₦5.64bn went on utility bills, amounting to ₦50.02bn in the first three months of 2024.
The general utilities include electricity, internet, telephone charges, water rates, and sewerage charges, among others.
The sub-nationals also paid ₦405.77bn as salaries to their workers.
Foreign Trips
Other recurrent spending items covered in the report included the amount spent on foreign and domestic travel.
Also included were internet access fees, entertainment, foodstuff, honorarium/sitting allowance.
Others are, wardrobe allowances, telephone bills, electricity charges, stationery, anniversaries/special days, welfare, aircraft maintenance, and more.
In the first three months of 2024, Abia State spent ₦10.92bn on its recurrent expenditures.
Miscellaneous
This includes ₦165.38m on refreshments and feeding, ₦39.26m on utilities, ₦214.57m on sitting allowances.
₦127.1m went on local and foreign travels, among miscellaneous expenses.
During the said period, Adamawa State spent ₦23.7bn on recurrent expenditures with ₦287.61m spent on refreshments and feeding.
Furthermore, ₦109.62m was spent on utilities, ₦79.57m on sitting allowances, ₦768.77m on local and foreign travels.
For Akwa Ibom State, recurrent expenditure gulped ₦46.85bn.
Sitting Allowances
This included ₦4.46m on refreshments and feeding, ₦223.32m on utilities, ₦6m on sitting allowances, ₦214.61m on local and foreign travel.
Anambra State disbursed ₦9.91bn for recurring expenses.
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₦78.18m was spent on refreshments and feeding, ₦32.52m on utilities, ₦42.09m on sitting allowances, ₦188.39m on local and foreign travel.
Also, recurrent expenditures cost Bauchi State Government ₦35.75bn.
₦397.58m went to utilities, ₦50.8m on refreshments, ₦287.11m on allowances, and ₦413.56m on trips.
Utilities
Bayelsa State spent ₦35.1bn on recurrent expenditures, comprising ₦28.4m on utilities.
₦156.14m was spent on refreshments and ₦279.99m on trips.
Similarly, Lagos State disbursed ₦189.62bn for recurrent expenditures.
It included ₦1.21m for refreshments, ₦383.12m for utilities, sitting allowances costing ₦52.79m and ₦633.37m on travels.
More Spending
Borno spent ₦18.79bn, Cross Rivers (₦17.44bn), Delta (₦68.68bn), Ebonyi (₦14.95bn), Edo (₦32.32bn), Ekiti (₦32.8bn), Enugu (₦7.51bn) and Gombe with ₦20.89bn.
Within the same period, Jigawa State spent N15.52bn on the recurrent expenditures.
Kaduna expended ₦34.69bn, Kano (₦34.41bn), Katsina (₦21.87bn), Kebbi (₦11.67bn), Kogi (₦37.4bn).
Others includes, Kwara (₦24.34bn), Nasarawa (₦18.61bn), Ogun (₦47.12bn), Ondo (₦31.12bn), Osun (₦24.39bn), Oyo (₦40.12bn), Plateau (₦24.70bn), Zamfara (₦13.46bn), and Taraba (₦20.93bn).
