The Ministry of Defense is seeking N49.57 million in the 2024 proposed budget to create a databank for veterans.
This is coming about 15 years after a former president of Nigeria asked the Ministry of Defense to establish such a database, according to findings by Nairametrics.
At the launching of the 2008 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Emblem in Abuja, late President Umaru Yar’Adua asked the Ministry of Defense to accelerate action on the completion of a Data Bank for all retired and retiring military personnel.
According to him, the welfare of all ex-servicemen and women is one of the top priorities of his administration, and the data bank would resolve problems associated with the payment of pensions and gratuities in the country.
In July 2021, a former Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Oladayo Amao, approved the immediate establishment of a Directorate of Veterans Affairs, to stimulate better welfare packages for NAF veterans and their families.
At the Armed Forces Remembrance Day on November 11, 2023, military veterans advocated for improved welfare to meet economic realities after years of service to Nigeria.
In a letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by a group of veterans under the aegis of ‘Able Retired Soldiers’, the veterans said some members of 63 Nigerian Army intake were yet to be paid pension or any other benefits after over four decades of the end of Nigerian Civil War.
Earlier, the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, assured Nigerian veterans of the Federal Government’s commitment to provide better welfare to them and their families.
Speaking to the Executives of the Veteran Association of Nigeria last month in Abuja, he said that the Federal Government was working on an existing structure that would be all-inclusive in terms of the welfare of the Veterans and their families.
Other allocations for the ministry
Nairametrics further observed that the Ministry of Defence has a total expenditure budget of N78.52 billion, with N18.95 billion to be spent on personnel costs.
The ministry plans to spend N229.53 billion to repair hospitals and health centres, N1.17 billion to repair barracks, and N107.54 million to repair office buildings.
It is also asking for N120 million for anti-personnel landmine demining in contaminated areas of northeast Nigeria.
The ministry is also seeking another N120 million to renovate military cemeteries.
Other allocations include N5.71 million for the upgrade of the Army Affairs department’s registry and establishment of a files mail tracker and N3.3 million for the upgrade of the record and registry.
There is also N16.25 million for the inspection of Nigerian Army facilities/barrack accommodation across the country and N125.87 million for the implementation of the performance management system (PMS) in the ministry.