NNMA Laments 31% Slash In Capital Budget

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The Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) has lamented a 31 per cent cut
in its 2019 budget, insisting that such will only double its serially
increasing debt burden from one year to another.

According to the
NNMA, prior to the slash, the allocation from the federal government
alone was grossly inadequate to meet its statutory demands, adding that
with the shortfall, the agency will hardly survive 2019 without
encountering financial hardship.

Chairman of the governing
board, Prof Shekarau Yakubu Aku who stated this in Abuja at the opening
ceremony of the 11th forum of the laureates of the Nigerian National
Order of Merit (NNOM) themed, “The Imperative of Unity in Diversity”.

He
said the slash will further create untold hardship to the agency in
fulfilling its mandate, and called on the federal government to give
legal backing on the proposed NNMA policy group.

The group, he maintained, has the ability to assist government at all levels in policy implementation and programmes.

Aku
said: “It is unfortunate also that the cut down of NNMA’s capital
budget for year 2019 by 31 per cent will further create untold hardship
on achieving the core mandate of the NNMA.

“The allocation from
the federal government alone is grossly inadequate to meet the needs of
the NNMA, so the agency hardly survives in a year without facing
pronounced financial hardship that frequently threatens its core
mandate, which creates a serially correlated debt burden from one year
to the next,” he said.

Meanwhile, after a rigorous screening
exercise by the board, only one winner emerged as the 2018 recipient of
the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM).

The awardee in all
the categories namely humanities, science, medicine, engineering and
technology, is Prof. Olufemi Obafemi, a creative writer, critic,
dramatist as well as a theatre director.

Aku said due to the
strictness employed, many were not configured and so did not apply,
noting that nominations had not dropped but that those who submitted
themselves were below what was expected.

“The process of
selection is very rigorous. The nominees must support with the evidence
of their work that has been researched and this is quite an expensive
exercise,” he added.

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