Reps declare Tinubu’s N595b allocation to intelligence inadequate 

• As NEDC takes lion share in humanitarian ministry 

House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence has described the N595 billion allocation to the intelligence subsector as grossly inadequate.

The panel appealed to President Bola Tinubu to direct the Minister of Finance to ensure the full release of the 2024 capital allocation to the security and intelligence sector in the overall interest of the nation’s security.

While commending the President for allocating about N4.91 trillion to the defence and security sector, thus underscoring the priority accorded to security in the 2025 Budget, the committee lamented that the intelligence subsector appeared grossly underfunded.

Chairman of the committee, Ahmed Satomi (APC, Borno), who appealed at the budget defence session of agencies, under the Office of the National Security Adviser, Chairman of the Committee, Ahmed Satomi (APC, Borno), said it was regrettable that capital allocation to some of the intelligence agencies had not been released, while releases to others had not been encouraging.

According to him, the intelligence subsector is allocated N595,024,943,368 billion, out of which proposed capital expenditure allocation is N274,550,298,453.00, overhead allocation receiving N107,963,187,783 while personnel cost gets N212,511,457,132 billion.

MEANWHILE, checks by The Guardian have revealed that the North-East Development Commission is taking the largest chunk off the entire budget of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction with N297,592,456,557 out of the total of N337,312,338,760.

This leaves the remaining eight agencies and the mother ministry with a balance of N39,719,882,203. According to the proposal, over 80 per cent of the NEDC budget would be expended on crisis recovery programmes, service delivery and livelihoods programmes and other recurrent expenditure.

From the N39 billion balance, the National Social Investment Programme Agency, (NSIPA), one of the foremost Federal Government poverty social safety net and intervention agencies, gets N8,868,171,304 most of which would be spent on the controversial homegrown school-feeding programme (N1.8 billion).

The N-Power project gets N1.8 billion, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Project (GEEP) has N1.8 billion and another N1.8 billion for office furniture.
Other agencies under the ministry, including the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPWD), and the National Senior Citizens Centre among others each get N4.6 billion, N6.3 billion, N7.04 billion, N2.3 billion and N1.2 billion respectively.

The parent ministry itself has an allocation of N7.1 billion as a budget to be spent largely on salaries, local travel, training, office materials and supplies, allowances and others.