THE Police commands and formations, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Ministry of Defence have proposed over N149 million on the purchase of newspapers in 2023.
This is according to the appropriation bill for 2023 presented by President Buhari last week.
Tagged “2023 Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Transition”, Buhari proposed a total of N20.51 trillion as appropriation for the year.
This is his last budget as President of Nigeria.
The budget, which is benchmarked on an oil price of $70 per barrel, has a recurrent expenditure profile of N8.27 trillion and a capital expenditure profile of N5.35 trillion.
The planned expenditure also includes; Statutory Transfers of N744.11 billion; Personnel Costs of N4.99 trillion; Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees’ Benefits of N854.8 billion and Overheads of N1.11 trillion; Debt Service of N6.31 trillion; and Sinking Fund of N247.73 billion.
According to a document, Police Commands and formations proposed to buy newspapers worth 61,498,580; the EFCC proposed 10,816,896 for newspapers; while academies and departments within the Ministry of Defence want to spend N76,890,927 on newspapers.
A breakdown of the budget of the Ministry of Defence, officers on Defence missions would spend N56,325,516 on newspapers; Nigeria Defence Academy, and the Defence headquarters would spend N1,200,321 and N1,007,976 respectively for the same purpose.
The budget of the Nigeria Air Force has N14,049,000 for newspapers. For the Command And Staff College, Jaji – N1,265,000; Airforce Institute Of Technology, Kaduna – N346,485; Defence Industries Corporation Of Nigeria – N600,000; and N96,629 for the Defence Space Administration, for newspaper purchase.
