The Federal Government of Nigeria spent at least N48.7 billion on the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the first nine months of 2024, a budget performance review that exposes fresh questions about internal controls and oversight at the very office charged with stabilising the Niger Delta.
The figure emerges from a SaharaReporters review of the budget performance document covering January to September 2024 and is reinforced by Auditor-General findings earlier reported to parliament and the public.
A separate Auditor-General summary made public in late 2024 found that more than N6 billion was withdrawn without adequate audit trails or adherence to procedural safeguards.
That breakdown included N1.53 billion paid as tuition to various universities for beneficiaries of the PAP where paid vouchers lacked receipts, admission letters or any identity documentation tying payments to named students.
Those gaps were flagged as breaches of the Federal Financial Regulations and of basic public financial management practice.
A detailed fiscal account table showing Nigeria’s Federal Government revenue and expenditure for September 2024, including budget approvals and actual spending figures, with specific emphasis on the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
The breach is not merely technical. Paragraph 708 of the Financial Regulations 2009 forbids payments for services not performed or goods not supplied.
Paragraph 603(i) requires that vouchers contain full and specific particulars of services so that payments can be checked without reference to other documents.
The Auditor-General’s examples of tuition payments without supporting evidence and of vouchers lacking essential particulars fall squarely within those prohibitions.
In other words the payments, as recorded, contravene rules designed to prevent ghost beneficiaries and phantom invoices.
Beyond tuition the audit found systemic control weaknesses. A total of N3.62 billion was reportedly disbursed without internal audit checks.
Small cash advances totalling N29 million were issued to officers for procurement in amounts that regularly exceeded the statutory limit of N200,000.
There were also payments amounting to N87.7 million for store items where no evidence existed that the goods had been taken on store ledger charge.
Taken together these findings suggest not isolated mistakes but process failures that permit repeated rule breaches.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme management pushed back, insisting that some audit observations relate to accounting years 2020 and 2021 and predate the current leadership.
The PAP public statement and subsequent clarifications argued that recent headlines had conflated older audit cycles with the present administration and urged readers to note the timeline of the Auditor-General’s report.
That defence does not, however, erase the immediate policy problem. Whether the anomalies occurred in previous years or during the most recent budget cycle they expose vulnerabilities that can be exploited by fraudsters and that weaken the credibility of a programme crucial to national security.
Context matters. Since 2015 the federal government has spent roughly ₦1.9 trillion on PAP activities at various levels of intervention according to compiled accounting of disbursements and budgetary allocations.
Annual allocations in recent years have hovered in the tens of billions, with policymakers and Niger Delta stakeholders routinely arguing for more resources to sustain reintegration, vocational training and community development.
Those long term expenditure patterns make transparent accounting essential. When funds dedicated to reintegration lack adequate oversight the risk is not only financial loss but a renewal of grievance among ex-combatants and communities that the programme was designed to heal.
From a security and intelligence perspective the consequences are stark. The Presidential Amnesty Programme is integral to stabilising communities that have experienced pipeline sabotage, kidnapping and organised violence.
If money meant for tuition, training and livelihoods vanishes or is misapplied the credibility of the reintegration effort collapses. That can feed recrudescence of militancy and provide fertile ground for criminal networks to recruit and to co opt resources.
The intelligence takeaway is clear. Fiscal mismanagement in a security sensitive programme is itself a threat vector. No counterinsurgency plan succeeds if the economic pillar is hollow.
Parliamentary and civil society options are available. The House of Representatives has previously signalled interest in stronger oversight of PAP budgets and may yet insist on a full forensic audit of the 2020 to 2024 cycles and a public beneficiary register for educational sponsorships.
Parliament can condition future supplementary approvals on demonstrable reforms such as centralised electronic voucher systems, mandatory digital receipts for every tuition payment and a public portal for traceable procurement and stores ledger entries.
Civil society groups should seek court enforceable disclosure of beneficiary lists subject to privacy safeguards to ensure payments match named beneficiaries and institutions.
A credible reform agenda must also tackle internal control and personnel accountability. The Auditor-General report points to weak internal audit functions and the granting of multiple advances without evidence of retirement.
Strengthening the internal audit unit, rotating procurement officers, and enforcing immediate disciplinary measures when vouchers are incomplete are minimum steps.
Donor partners and development finance institutions that support Niger Delta recovery will expect these reforms before they deepen engagement. Failure to act risks reduced external support and the further erosion of local confidence.