President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has budgeted N1.35 trillion for the ongoing campaign against insurgency in the 2023 fiscal year.
According to the details of the N20.5 trillion budget presented to the joint national assembly last week, the administration appropriated N1.36 trillion for combating widespread insecurity. This represents more than 5 per cent of the entire 2023 budget.
Breaking down how the administration planned to spend N1.35 trillion, the document showed the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces will receive about N1.248 trillion to intensify the fight against Boko Haram, bandits and other rebel groups.
From the N1.248 trillion, personnel expenditure will gulp over N1 trillion; overhead cost, N90.961 billion; and capital expenditure, N156.294 billion.
From the total allocation, the Nigerian army budgeted N3.08 billion for three units of Bell UH 1D helicopters while N2.7 billion will be used to purchase three units of Magnus MF 212 surveillance attack aircraft.
Similarly, the Nigerian Airforce budgeted N2.09 billion for ‘the balance payment for procurement of two AW109 Trekker helicopters; another N1.25 billion for the ‘balance payment for periodic depot maintenance of three L-39ZA aircraft. The Airforce will also spend N27.3 billion for additional payment for procurement of six T-129 attack helicopters.
On the other hand, the Nigerian Navy is to procure Ocea3X32 fast patrol boats, six special forces boats, six RHIBs, three fuel cleaning stations and four years of integrated logistics support for N9.1 billion.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence headquarters plans to spend N7m on a new project titled ‘Provision of Tablets (10nos) to Press Officers for 24 hours news monitoring, news gathering and information dissemination to media houses while quarterly publication of the Ministry of Defence newsletter will also gulp N20m.
Also, a sum of N1.09 billion has been appropriated for the prosecution of Boko Haram and terrorism-related cases in 2023.