The former president Goodluck Jonathan’s team has released details of how N333million was spent to celebrate the nation’s independence anniversaries from 2012 to 2014.
According to a statement from the team, N70 million was spent on prayers.
The statement said N20,000,000.00 which was split equally for the Special Jumat prayers and the interdenominational church service in 2012; N10,000,000.00 was spent apiece on both special Jumat prayer and the interdenominational church services and in 2014 the anniversary prayer budget increased by 50 per cent with special Jumat prayers and the interdenominational church services costing N15,000,000.00, each thus bringing the amount to N70 million in three years.
The statement further added that “in 2012 when the Jonathan administration budgeted N107,600,000.00 for the event, the ceremonial change of guard parade cost N4,000,000.”
“The budget document, entitled: ‘Independence Day Celebration Programme and Expenditure’ also showed that visits to hospitals/orphanages and other women/children activities cost N25,000,000.00 while N18,400,000.00 and N40,200, 000.00 was budgeted for anniversary lecture and dinner,” the team said.
It was further gathered that in 2013 when only N45,000,-000.00 was budgeted, visits to hospitals/orphanages and other women/children activities cost N25,000,000.00, while in 2014, visits to hospitals/orphanages and other women and children activities cost N30,000,000.00.
The statement said: “A sizable percentage of the expenditure went into public presentation, publicity and review of the Transformation Agenda compendium which had a budget sub-head of N120,000,-000.00.”
The document further explained that the National Honours Award Investiture was organised as part of the 2014 independence anniversary celebration with a different budget.
It said: “following the directive of Mr. President that National Honours Award Investiture should be organised as part of the independence anniversary celebration. The budget for 2013 National Honours award investiture was proposed and approved for N174,800,000.00 with the independence celebration activities. “However, National Honours award investiture could not hold in 2013 and the approved budget was utilised to organise the investiture in 2014.”
It will be recalled that Governor Nasir El-rufai claimed that the immediate past President, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration spent N64billion to cover the country independence anniversary spending in five years.
The break down, according to the governor showed that N13billion was spent in 2011, N15billion in 2012 and N14billion in 2013 and N22billion allegedly spent in 2014.
But the former president denied the reports, saying his administration spent only N332.6 million for the celebration in five years, an average of N66 million per year.