Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secrets Reporters
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, under the leadership of Minister Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, has come under scrutiny following the release of its 2024 Budget Performance Document, which exposed a staggering ₦8,969,707 spent on the mere printing of documents, a development that raises serious questions about the Ministry’s financial priorities in a country grappling with an unemployment crisis.
According to the document obtained exclusively by SecretsReporters, the Ministry allocated and expended ₦3,969,707 on non-security document printing and a further ₦5,000,000 on security document printing, bringing the total expenditure for printing alone to nearly ₦9 million. Intriguingly, the expenditure on security documents even exceeded the initial appropriation, with the released allocation for the item reaching ₦5.2 million, though the expenditure was capped at the original ₦5 million.
This lavish spending is particularly alarming when juxtaposed with Nigeria’s soaring unemployment rate, which stood at 33.3% in 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This figure represents millions of able-bodied Nigerians, particularly the youth, who remain without sustainable employment opportunities. Given that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment is the primary government organ tasked with addressing issues of employment generation, labour productivity, and workforce development, the allocation of such substantial funds for document printing—without any direct link to job creation—reflects a glaring misplacement of priorities.
The financial report further exposes how the Ministry, which oversees critical agencies like the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the National Productivity Centre (NPC), and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), has become more focused on administrative overhead than on implementing tangible employment programs. These agencies, which are meant to drive job creation and support employment initiatives across the country, are left underfunded, while millions are funneled into printing expenses.
This revelation raises fundamental questions about the fiscal discipline and transparency within the Ministry. How does spending close to ₦9 million on documents directly contribute to reducing unemployment or enhancing productivity? What documents, precisely, necessitated such colossal expenditure? Were these documents outsourced to private contractors at inflated prices, and were any due process violations involved?
The revelations become even more concerning considering that the Ministry held a Budget Defence Meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity on January 14, 2025, where the Ministry’s leadership defended its spending and presented its 2025 budget proposals. Yet, nowhere in these presentations was there any indication that such wasteful expenditure would be questioned or reviewed. Instead, the focus was largely on ceremonial protocols and bureaucratic exercises.
For a Ministry established to address Nigeria’s deepening employment crisis—one exacerbated by economic downturn, business closures, and dwindling investments—the decision to prioritize printing over employment programs exposes a disconnect from the realities Nigerians face daily. It also reflects a broader culture of fiscal irresponsibility where scarce public funds are spent on non-essential items while millions of job-seeking Nigerians are left to fend for themselves.
