The House of Representatives committee on Environment has decried the refusal by the authorities to fund the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCN).

The Committee, chaired by Mr. Julius Pondi, at the budget defense session on Thursday with officials of EHCN, expressed displeasure that the outfit was starved of funds in breach of extant provisions of the law.

Pondi, who empathized with EHCN staffers over the hardship they endured without salaries since last year, wondered why the budget office excluded EHCN from the 14 similar councils reinstated into the budget net by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The Delta-born politician, who listened to the Executive Director of the EHCN, Dr. Yakubu Mohammed, while explaining the ordeal of his outfit, pledged to interface with the Minister of Environment, Dr. Maruf Tunji-Alausa, to correct the anomaly before the passage of the 2025 budget at the end of this month.

He said: “It’s okay. We are already in constant touch with the minister on how it can be brought back into the budget plan. We sympathise with you, 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, their wives, and children must have gone through.”

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Mohammed, who expressed gratitude to the lawmakers for their support, disclosed that the council was removed from the budgetary net as a result of a government policy dated 26th March 2024 to discontinue funding of regulatory bodies in the health sector.

He disclosed that the policy was reversed by FEC after a series of engagements between the 14 outfits affected, the budget office, and the Minister of Health.

He further stated that his council was denied funding because of issues relating to classification, which placed EHCN under the realm of environmental matters in the country.

Mohammed explained that, despite the challenges, his council played a pivotal role in checkmating 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.

He argued that the restoration of funding to the council will boost environmental health and sanitation, which is responsible for 92 percent of diseases ravaging developing countries of the world.

Mohammed thereby sought the approval of the committee for the sum of N1.1 billion for capital expenditure, N264 million for overhead, and personnel expenditure to the tune of N1.7 billion, just as he projected a revenue of N239 million for the council for the year 2025.