This is the fifth part of the #SaatahBudgetSeries. This part promises to be the most interesting of all Ministries whose budgets I’ve analysed so far. With a budget increase of over 200%, the Federal Ministry of Interior should have a lot to offer us.
The total budget for the Federal Ministry of Interior stands at 498,453,097,241; 428,374,007,241 out of the total budget is allocated for “Recurrent Expenditure” while the remaining, a rather meagre 70,079,090,000 has been allocated for “Capital Expenditure.”
Firstly, following our tradition since the beginning of this budget analysis series, I’ll outline the agencies and institutions that find themselves under the Federal Ministry of Interior, so as to pass my message across in a very clear and understandable form. These agencies/institutions are as follows: Federal Ministry of Interior—HQTRS, Nigerian Prison Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Civil Defence, Immigration and Prison Service Board (CIPD), Custom, Immigration, Prison Pension Office (CIPPO), Federal Fire Service, Police Pension Board, Nigeria Police Academy , Police Formation and Command HQTRS.
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
“Fellow Nigerians” the Federal Ministry of Interior has a budget for books. Err actually this isn’t a red flag, instead I find it beautiful, that since our President didn’t see reading as important enough to put it in his budget, others have decided to read. Now let’s begin the analysis in earnest. The Federal Ministry of Interior has a budget of 347,750,647 for the “Purchase of Computers.” In 2013, the Federal Ministry of Interior “Purchased Computers” worth 75,343,403. This year, they’ve taken their maddening wasteful spending 450% percent higher, to a towering 347,750,647. This is more than the total amount budgeted by the Ministry of Science and Technology on the same item for three years; 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The Federal Ministry of Interior has also appropriated the sum of 576,500,000 for the “Construction/Provision of Electricity.” I don’t know, but what I’ve deduced from that budget is that the Federal Ministry of Interior must have been operating with lanterns and candles since inception. Nothing else justifies the spending of such a huge amount of money. If you’re wondering what 576,500,000 can achieve, it’ll electrify 33 communities; 30 communities in Ondo and 3 communities in the FCT according to the budget of the National Rural Electrification Agency.
In 2014, the Federal Ministry of Interior budgeted 88,706,193 for the “Repair/Rehabilitation of Office Buildings,” while in the 2015 budget, it was 24,464,846. In the 2016 budget, the “Rehabilitation/Repairs Office Buildings,” that was done in 2104 and 2105, “elephantined” by almost 2500% to 595,606,148. Another thing I want you to know is that according to the 2014 budget, the Ministry of Interior building was damaged by a storm, and the 24,464,846 in the 2015 budget was for storm damaged rehabilitation, compare with the 595,606,148 in the 2016 budget.
The Federal Ministry of Interior will spend 6,200,000,000 on “Research and Development”. Firstly, that is more than the budget for the Ministry of Women Affairs, 3,974,395,038. To put this in perspective, 32 Agricultural Research Institutes and Colleges will spend a cumulative total of 4,411,236,320 on “Research and Development.”
The 2016 budget takes a very predictable trend. I have noticed that where the drafters of the budget don’t find creative ways to budget money that’ll probably end up in personal bank accounts; they put it under “Research and Development.” The Federal Ministry of Interior isn’t different in any away, everything about this budget smells of high level graft and the budget for “Research and Development” does more than prove this. The funny thing about this is that, when the items are broken down, the amount for “Research and Development” is only 200,000,000 and the bulk of the money, 6,000,000,000 ends up going to the “Special Intervention Fund for Police Formations and Command.” While the Police Formation and Command with a total budget of 300,100,330,698 didn’t give a breakdown of how it plans to spend its capital budget.
The Nigerian Prison Service has a budget of 3,519,266,507 for the “Construction/Provision of Prisons” and another 5,093,363,237 for the “Rehabilitation/Repairs of Prisons.” The problem here isn’t the amount budgeted for these items. Such huge sums have been budgeted over the years, but yet our prison system remains the same or sometimes gets worse than it was met. I hope these monies will be channelled and properly utilised.
I feel the funniest part of the budget for the Nigerian Prison Service is the part where 500,000,000 was budgeted for “Research and Development. “Further breakdown shows that that amount will actually be spent on “Capacity Building.” Talking of a real building, according to the budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, we can spend that same amount to get 6 blocks of 3 classrooms.
The Nigerian Immigration Service will spend 200,000,000 to “Acquire Land.” It is an open secret that government doesn’t buy land, they “collect” and “pay compensation”. I’d love to know how they plan to spend the 200,000,000 set aside of that purpose or maybe they’re compensating an entire village.
2,120,000,450 is what the Nigerian Immigration Service will spend on “Security Equipment.” That’s an increase of over 800% from the 2014 budget for same item which stood at 258,000,000 and a 2500% increase from the 2015 budget where same item had a budget of 86,057,143.
The Nigerian Immigration Service spent 250,000,000 to “Construct Office Buildings” in 2014 and 133,302,386 in 2015. In the 2016 budget, the Nigerian Immigration Service changes the game; they have a budget of 1,301,229,706 for the same item. That’s an increase of over 400% from the 2014 budget and almost 1000% increase from the 2015 budget. There’s also a separate 500,000,000 that is meant for the “Rehabilitation/Repairs of Office Buildings.”
The Nigerian Immigration Service will also spend 450,000,000 for the “Provision of Solar Powered Boreholes.” They also want to spend 1,300,214,210 on the “Purchase of Patrol and Operational Vehicles.” Now, here’s the problem; they also budgeted another 1,385,131,167 for the “Purchase of All Terrain Vehicles for Land Patrol.” I would love to know the difference between these two items because they look like the same thing to me, “Patrol Vehicles.”
The Federal Fire Service has budgeted 5,622,131,167 for the “Procurement of Fire Fighting Equipment for Existing Fire Station in Abuja and Lagos.” Another 749,943,030 is budgeted for “Rehabilitation of Firefighting Equipment (Abuja and Lagos).” There seems to be an agreement that the rest of the country can burn to the ground.
The Police Formation and Command HQTRS failed to give a detailed breakdown of what their 17,009,090,000 capital budget will be used for.
We have come to the end of the fifth part of my budget analysis series. What I’ve noticed with the budget for the Federal Ministry of Interior isn’t entirely different from what I’ve noticed with other Ministries; there is an inflation of budget sums in a lot of areas and there also exists some very unnecessary/vague items put in the budget with millions (or billions in some cases) allocated to them.
As I leave you to apply rational reasoning concerning this budget, let me add a little in-between: In the 2015 budget for the Ministry of Land and Housing, 200,000,000 was set aside for the “Completion of Construction of a Mausoleum and Library Complex in Honour of Late Rt. Hon. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.” In this year’s budget for the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, 1,143,575,058 is budgeted for the same item. Another 137,552,031 will be spent on “Provision of Furnishings in the New Mausoleum and Library Complex in Honour of Late Rt. Hon. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.” Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe must be clapping in his grave for this Houdini-like stunt.
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Saatah Nubari is on Twitter @Saatah
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