2017 Budget: Jonathan, Obasanjo and other past presidents to get N2.3bn

Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and other former presidents and vice president are entitled to N2.3 billion in this year’s budgetary appropriation.

Guardian reports that although the details of the allocation have not been made public, it is expected to cover the welfare, pensions and gratuities of former presidents and former vice presidents.

Significantly, the National Assembly increased its own budget from N115 billion from 2016 to N125 billion in the 2017 budget.

According to the breakdown, the management got N6,714,696,986 for personnel with overhead cost of N6,193,052,825 and capital cost of N2,011,315,202, totalling N14,919,065,013.

The Senate got N1,856,510,517 for personnel; N25,111,332,147 for overheads and N4,430,923,222 for capital; totalling N31,398,765,886.

The House of Representatives got N4,923,743,127 for personnel; N39,635,756,179 and N4,493,244,677; totaling N49,052,743,983, among others.

Abdulrazak Namdas who is the chairman house committee on media and publicly in his defence for the budget increment said the assembly’s vote in 2016 was inadequate which was why it was increased for 2017.

He cited the current economic challenges as the reason for the necessary increment.

The Niger Delta ministry got N30 billion while N76.7 billion was set for the implementation of the amnesty programme this year.