‘Nigeria spent over $2bn on 13, 000 ex-militants in five years’

Nigeria is reported to have spent over $2 billion on 13,000 ex militants in the last five years out of the registered 30,000, even as prospective 17,000 beneficiaries are still waiting on government.

The cost of managing the nation’s amnesty programme when compared to other parts of the world is considered the most expensive.

While speaking with journalists on Thursday ahead of the forthcoming national conference on the Niger Delta Way Forward Project in Abuja, Mr Charles Achodo, Executive Director of Nextier Advisory and Investments, said: “Other countries paid their ex militants a maximum of $300 for their Transitional Safety net Allowance (TSA) to give militants something to hold on to prior to integration after disarming the militants in two installments, the Nigerian government was paying each ex militant N65,000 every month for five years.”

Achodo added that the government was also paying subsistence allowance or pocket money to the ex militants.

According to him, in other countries they pay $30 per month but in Nigeria we pay N90,000 for those schooling in Nigeria and £500 or $700 for those in school outside the country and there are 17, 000 people still waiting to benefit from the training.

Read also: Shut up, ex-militants tell Clark

These payments, he said, does not cover tuition and cost of training. “In other countries amnesty budget is pegged at $1,500 per beneficiary, in Nigeria it is $60,000 to $70,000, this is a big drain on the national budget,” he said.

He described the current form of the amnesty programme as a blunder because the programme was paying through commanders with their command structures intact with the ability to foment trouble in future.

A fraction of the money he said goes to the militants while a large portion of the intervention is pocketed by the militant commanders.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now