Ex-militants get N24b as reps pass 2015 budget

The federal house of representatives on Thursday approved the sum of N20,085,865,120 for the presidency in the passage of the budget of the 2015 fiscal year, with the stipends and allowances of 30,000 Niger Delta ex-militants to gulp N23.625 billion.

The house approved a total sum of N4.493 trillion, which is an increase of N135.4 billion over what was proposed by the executive in November 2014, after months of debates on technical and fiscal difficulties.

The senate had approved $52 per barrel as oil benchmark for the budget in February, while the executive proposed $65 per barrel when it presented the budget to the legislators in December 2014 through Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy.

The report of the budget, which was adopted by the lower house, was presented by John Owan Enoh, a member of the PDP from Cross River state and chairman of the house committee on appropriations.

Education received the highest allocation of N392.2 billion, followed by Defence/MOD/Army/Air Force/Navy with N326.69 billion and police formation and commands with N303.82 billion while the sum of N236.9 billion is for the health sector.

N2.3 billion is for entitlements of former Presidents/Heads of State and Vice Presidents/Chiefs of General Staff; N38.98 is for public service wage adjustment for MDAs (including arrears of promotion and salary increases) while N11.755 billion is for improved remuneration package for Nigerian police.

From the total sum of N63,281,093,786 earmarked for presidential amnesty programme, the stipends and allowances of 30,000 Niger Delta ex-militants is to gulp N23.625 billion; N5.502 billion is for presidential amnesty operational cost; N34.15 billion is for reintegration of transformed ex-militants while zero allocation is for reinsertion/transition safety allowances for 3,642 ex-militants (phase 3).

From the total sum of N953.62 billion approved for debt servicing, the sum of N894.610 billion is for domestic debt while N59.010 billion is for foreign debts.

The breakdown further shows that the sum of N69.42 billion is earmarked for Youth Development; N62.22 billion for office of the National Security Adviser; N58.29 billion for Petroleum Resources; N48.299 billion for Secretary to the Government of the Federation; N41.688 billion for Foreign Affairs while N31.87 billion is for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Similarly, the sum of N26.59 billion is budgeted for Science and Technology; N25.177 billion is for Works; N23.69 billion is for Information; N18.118 billion is for Tourism, Culture and National Orientation; N15.602 billion is for Environment; N10.978 billion is for Trade and Investment while N10.597 billion is for Communication Technology.