The Public Complaints Commission (PCC) has said it would require N23bn in 2022 to boost its operations and tackle agitations before they could escalate to crisis.
The commission said it received 45,000 petitions across the country in 2021 but could only resolve 9,000 due to inadequate budgetary allocation.
The Chief Commissioner of the PCC, Abimbola Ayo-Yusuf, stated this in an interview with newsmen after he defended his agency’s 2022 budget before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
“We have cash problem. We need to move around, we don’t have vehicles; we are cashtrapped. That’s why we are asking the National Assembly to increase our budget,” he said.
Ayo-Yusuf explained that the various inter and intra communal clashes and fraudulent practices taking place in local communities would not have become a national discourse if the aggrieved had access to authorities they could complain to on time.
“We are in a mess right now in Nigeria because people could not complain to the government. Everybody is agitated because people were not listening to them.
“If there are avenues for them to lodge complainants at the local government headquarters and wards, the crisis we have in Nigeria would not have escalated to this point,” he added.
He said the fresh N23bn being proposed by his agency would enable it to establish offices in all the wards and local government headquarters in the country and provide logistics for his personnel to function effectively.
