The Federal Government is proposing to spend   N517.9m   this year on meals and refreshments   for the Presidency, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ministries of power and petroleum as well as their parastatals.

The amount is contained in the details of the 2015 budget breakdown, which was obtained by our correspondents in Abuja on Sunday.

The   N517.9m proposal for refreshments and meals is 42.9 per cent or N158.94m higher than the   N359.94m approved for the offices and the MDAs   in 2014 .

Out of the N517.9m,   a provision of N174.54m was made for refreshments and meals for the State House   in 2015.

The   N174.64m, according to the budget, is 7.4 per cent or N11.98m higher than the N162.55m approved in 2014.

For the office of the President, the budget breakdown revealed that a provision of N142.47m was made for 2015 for refreshments and meals.

However, nothing was mentioned as regards refreshments and meals for the President in the 2014 budget.

For the Vice-President,   a provision of   N25.58m was made for meals and refreshments.

The N25.58m represents   136.8 per cent increase over the N10.8m approved for the two items in the 2014 fiscal year.

However, while the State House Headquarters, Office of the President and the Vice President all have a combined budgetary provision of N342.59m for refreshments and meals, the 10 agencies under the presidency had a provision of just N67.4m for the same items.

They are the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals which has a provision of N8.49m; the Bureau for Public Enterprises, N14.72m; the National Emergency Management Agency,N14m; and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission N20m.

Others are the Bureau of Public Procurement, N5.52m; the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, N3.81m; and the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, N838,758.

In the same vein, the Presidency’s budget for meal and refreshments could be described as a sharp contrast over what was budgeted for the same purpose in the ministries of power and petroleum resources, as well as agencies under them which have a combined total provision of N48.7m.

The total budget for refreshments and meals for the Federal Ministry of Power and its agencies is N11.61m while that of Petroleum Resources is N37.1m.

In the 2014 Appropriation Act, the Petroleum ministry got N39.65m. That of     the Ministry of Power for the same year could not be obtained.

Of the eight agencies under the Federal Ministry of Power, only four had allocations for refreshments and meals.

A breakdown of the proposed budgetary allocation for 2015 shows that the headquarters of the Power ministry has N4.96m; the National Rural Electrification Agency, N2m; the Electricity Management Services Limited, N4m and the Nigeria Electricity Management Limited,   N652,111.

Also, of the six agencies under the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, only two have no allocations for refreshment and meals. These   are the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.

The headquarters of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has an allocation of N27.41m; the Petroleum Training Institute, N1.81m; the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, N5m and the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority, N2.9m.

The 2015 budget has a N4.358tn expenditure figure made up of N412bn for Statutory Transfers; N943bn for Debt Servicing; N2.61tn for Recurrent (Non-Debt) and N634bn for Capital Expenditure (inclusive of Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme).

While the recurrent vote is 85.8 per cent of aggregate budget, the capital expenditure is just 14.2 per cent of the aggregate spending (inclusive of SURE-P).

http://www.doronaij.com/2015/01/presidency-others-to-spend-n517-9m-on-meals-in-2015/

MAKE AN INFORMED CHOICE


MORE ON BUHARI AND CORRUPTION


1. Great Maltreating Days of Bonafide Nigerians:

Read confession: ON Friday, 23rd August, 1985, the military government of Major-General Mohammadu Buhari decided to place me under arrest. My crime was that I wrote, among others, an article entitled:
“Counter-trading Nigeria's Future” in the National Concord, exposing the government's scam of diverting public funds into private coffers through barter-trade with Brazil.
A man by the name of Benson Norman was sent from the State Security Services (SSS) to my office to get me. Not finding me, he left a note that I must present myself unfailingly at the SSS office at 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi Lagos the next Monday morning. However, on Sunday, 25th August, 1985, one Lateef Aminu came first thing in the morning to my house to inform me that the government of Buhari/Idiagbon had been overthrown by Ibrahim Babangida. For this reason, I am fond of telling people that God brought about a change of government in Nigeria just because of me.

2. COUP PLOTTER AND ZERO INTERGRITY
Under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime, once you ended up at 15 Awolowo Road, you may never be heard of again. Decree Number 2 of 1984 empowered His Vice Tunde Idiagbon to arrest and detain anybody indefinitely (without trial and without legal reprieve). After Buhari was overthrown, Mohammadu Gambo opened the prison doors of 15 Awolowo Road on public television, revealing people in various stages of UnCloth and malnutrition that had been kept in the dungeons without trial by Buhari's hound-dogs. As self-imposed Head of State, Buhari had no regard for human rights. Immediately he seized power, he announced that he would “tamper with” the press. Soon, the infamous Decree Number 4 was promulgated which made even the publication of the truth a punishable offence. Under this cover,

a. Buhari jailed innocent journalists, including Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabo.
b. He abolished civil liberties, promulgated retroactive decrees enabling him to kill Nigerians through jungle justice, proscribed civil society organizations and professional groups and exercised “absolute” power.

This same Buhari would now have us believe that he has gone through some metamorphosis and has become a democrat at old age?.
I am sure you will forgive me if people like me don't believe him. Buhari is not, has never been, and will never be, a democrat. Only in Nigeria would a man with his track record, who came to power through a military coup that illegally overthrew a democratic government, now be acclaimed as a democrat.

Refusal To Accept Civilian Rule: It is on record that Buhari's military regime is the only one in Nigeria's history that failed to promulgate a programme for return to civilian rule.

FACTS AND FICTIONS
So what exactly qualifies Buhari as a democrat
today?

--Nduka Irabor, Tunde Thompson and other Journalists cried when Buhari jailed them for writing factual stories about his govt.
--Tai Solarin the Activist cried when Buhari sent him to jail for publicly opposing him.
--Fela Ransome Kuti, the Musician, cried when he was jailed by Buhari.
--Parents and friends of Barth Owoh, Ojuolape and others cried when, they were sent to early graves.
--Former Governor of Imo State, the late Sam Mbakwe cried at Buhari’s marginalization of his people when PTDF was unable to construct a single road in South West, South South and South East whereas, the same PTDF under Buhari regime constructed more than 98 roads in the Northern part of Nigeria.
--Ambrose Ali cried when Buhari locked him up for nothing.
--Michael Ajasin cried and even became blind thanks Buhari.
--Civil Servants cried when he retrenched 53,000 workers.
--Nigerians cried while queuing for their portions of scarce commodities like rice, sugar, salt, milk and toiletries.
--Students cried when he re- introduced payment of school fees.
--Our Economy cried when he increased external debts by $3bn in 1year.
--Lagosians are still crying from road traffic because He cancelled the Metro line Railway Project.
--Nigerians have cried for more than 17 years of military rule resulting from Buhari’s criminal regime.


What goes around, comes around. Tears never begin flow from Buhari’s eyes yet. All Nigerians need is credibility not tears

--The parents of the 11 copper members slain in Bauchi, during 2011 post-election violence, that erupted, following Buhari's post-election speech activities of boko haram commence and thousands of Nigerians are dying every day , also cried The
--N2.8 billion stolen by Buhari and trillion of naira that disappeared under him in PTF is fresh in our memories, we shall never forget and forgive him.

We have recycled leaders enough. Nigeria is a country with more than 160 million people why recycle leaders? Those angling to replace the now discredited lot are in every way, the same fingers of a leprous hand. They had never offered anything for us in the past except hatred and distrust among us. We need a new set of credible people as leaders not the old same people. They ruled the country in the past and brought policies that
ruined this country to this extent and wants to come back again, never. We are many in Nigeria, let's try another set.

3. HIS ROTTEN PAST AND CORRUPTION:
Buhari's reputation as an anti-corruption crusader is also a myth. As head of state, he did not make any effort in Nigerian corruption. All we got was a
cosmetic “war against indiscipline.” The counter- trade scam happened under his watch. Rather than deal with it, he sent his hound-dogs after
nonentities from the South who dared to expose his rule and left the Northern brothers who praised him.

--The Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) that Buhari headed under Abacha was also a citadel of corruption. He did not only applied Nepotism to the resources to develope only the North, his cronies and those who worked under him enriched themself handsomely.


Try as he might again and again, Nigerians don't want Buhari Mohammed and he can never be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.


4. SECTARIANISM:
I need not stress that he is known for being a regional, sectional politician. Such politicians are practically impossible to package and market nationally in the ethnically-delicate Nigeria of today.

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir El'Rufai, one of those Northerners who
deserve to be serious contenders for the presidency of Nigeria, observed that Buhari remains
“perpetually unelectable” as a result of his “insensitivity to Nigeria's diversity and his
parochial focus.” This is an elegant way of saying that politically, Buhari has an uncanny
tendency to put his foot in his mouth. He talks before thinking of the political implications of his words.
He shoots from the hip.


The strength of Obasanjo, which enabled him to capture the presidency on two different occasions, was that he was perceived as a broadminded politician, not overly partial to his people in the South-West. As a matter of fact, in his first election, his people did not want him. The strength of
Goodluck Jonathan, which propelled him to win the presidency, was that he was able to string together a coalition that stretched both north and south of
the Niger. The weakness of Buhari is that he is totally unacceptable to people outside his region.


Buhari is a Northern regional champion.
As head of state in the 1980s, his government was unapologetically Northern. No attempt was made to balance the ticket at the top. It was the only regime
in Nigeria's history headed by two Northerners.


--When he seized power, Buhari put Shagari, the Northern head of state he overthrew, under house arrest. But then he jailed Alex Ekwueme, the Southern vice-president. You may well ask what makes Shagari less culpable for the misdeeds of the Second Republic than his number-two man.
The simple fact was that Buhari was Fulani as was Shagari; but Ekwueme was Igbo.


5. IMPOLITIC WORDS
At the height of the Sharia debate during the Obasanjo administration, Buhari declared that Muslims should vote only for fellow Muslims.
This was politically suicidal for a man seeking national office. He became an advocate for implementation of Sharia all over Nigeria.

--He protested to the Oyo State governor, in the context of a dispute between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the state, that “your people are killing my people.” This turned out to be unfounded and perhaps the reverse.

--His threats during the campaign for the 2011 elections incited widespread violence in the North after he lost. His supporters went on a rampage; looting and killing;raping in spite of the fact that, by all accounts, the elections were adjudged the most free and fair in the history of Nigeria's current democratic experiment. By the time the mayhem had subsided, over 1000 people had been slaughtered in cold blood and some 65,000 displaced.

Forgetting that a statement made in Hausa would readily be translated into English, Buhari later declared unapologetically in a BBC interview: “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” These are the tokens of an irresponsible politician, whose ambitions for power supersede the national interest.

Who then are the dogs and baboons ? Are they his children or are they those of others?

With the Boko Haram insurgency in the north, Buhari played to the Northern gallery yet again, calling the Jonathan government “the biggest Boko Haram.” Wole Olaniyi was a fly in the wall at a meeting in Kano Government House designed to persuade PDP rebel governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to decamp to the APC. Assuming that only Northerners were present, Buhari declared the Boko Haram was a “strategic plan” by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to “destroy the North.” When Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states, Buhari still saw this with Northern goggles, insinuating that the President is waging war on the North.


6. PRESIDENT OF THE NORTH
Without a doubt, Buhari has massive support in the North. Indeed, he is the most popular Northern politician in the North today. But that precisely remains his undoing at the centre. The more he has been identified as a Northern champion, the less attractive he has become as a national choice.

Even in the North, his support base is limited to the Muslim population. He does not appeal to Northern Christians. Then there is the added factor of the
opposition of his implacable opponents among the Northern elite. Men like Babangida and Atiku would rather die than allow Buhari get to Aso Rock.

One thing is certain, the South-South and the South-East will not vote for Buhari in 2015. Not only that; there are no buyers for Buhari's sectarian politics in the South-West.

No matter what Tinubu might be telling him, the people of the South-West will not vote for Buhari in 2015. We already had the template in 2011, when Buhari tried to sell himself, first by balancing his ticket with a Yoruba man; and then by making sure the Yoruba man is a Christian;a pastor no less. But it just did not wash. It will not work in 2015.
The worst thing that can happen to Northern presidential aspirations in 2015 is for Buhari to be on the APC ballot. That is a sure guarantee that the North will not be providing the next president. Buhari would be a shoo-in in an election for president of Northern Nigeria. But in an election encompassing the entire country, the best he can envisage is to be a kingmaker. He cannot be king. The nearest Buhari will get to Aso Rock in 2015 is
by attending the Council of State meetings.

Inasmuch as we want change, some teenagers should use their sense. The presidency is more like an organization and does not contain the president and his household only.

Its a pity the FOI bill placed so much data in our hands and several nonentities (including OP) try twisting it to blackmail the government.

So if APC win, it will erase meals for presidency?

When a common man can't even get garri to drink in a day. GEJ, fear God o

Thieves!!

I've downloaded Fr. Mbaka's Video, and just yesterday, 7 people copied it from me and they've started sharing it among their Christian Folks.

Stop ranting on Social Media, do your Part! Collect your PVC.. Spread the Gospel!!

#BuhariOsinbajo
#Change