This was revealed through a perusal of the details of the 2024 budget proposal on Wednesday.
President Bola Tinubu’s government has earmarked the sum of N65 billion for the Presidential Amnesty Programme: Reintegration of Transformed Ex-Militants while N50 billion was budgeted for the purchase of arms and ammunition to protect the citizens in 2024.
This was revealed through a perusal of the details of the 2024 budget proposal on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Defence listed a project titled ‘PURCHASE OF ARMS AND AMMUNITION’ with a budget of N50 billion on page 53 of the document.
However, on page 1,019 of the document, the government also budgeted N65 billion for the ‘PRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY PROGRAMME: REINTEGRATION OF TRANSFORMED EX-MILITANTS’.
The Nigerian government’s amnesty programme was designed by the government to reintegrate repentant militants into society.
According to budgetary provisions, the Tinubu administration intends to spend N15 billion more on this project than on firearms for security officers to combat the country’s ongoing insurgency.
The government also budgeted the sum of N120,000,000 for the renovation of military cemeteries and N290,000,000 for the purchase of vehicles for the Chief of Staff’s Office.
The budget proposal details also show that President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima earmarked N10.13 billion for meals and travel (both local and foreign trips).
Tinubu will spend N638.5 million on local trips and N6.9 billion on foreign trips, amounting to N7.6 billion.
Shettima’s travels will gulp N1.8 billion out of which N618.4 million is for local journeys and N1.2 billion for international trips.
Also, feeding titled ‘refreshment & meal and foodstuff for the offices of Tinubu and Shettima’ was allocated N660.5 million. Of this amount, N287.8 million is for the President’s office and N372.6 million is for the VP’s office.
The budget plan also includes N33.6 million for refreshments and meals for the President and N254.2 million for food and catering supplies.
The vice president plans to spend N35 million on refreshments/meals and N337.5 million on food/catering supplies.