The 2016 Appropriation Bill submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the 8th Assembly has been the subject of many heated controversy and discourse.

More drama ensued when the document was reportedly pilfered from the Senate as the copy submitted could not be accessed for consideration by the Assembly.

The budget office has however, uploaded a copy of the budget for public viewing, hence the intense scrutiny.

From the uploaded document, the Federal Ministry of Foreign and Intergovernmental Affairs got a huge slice of the proposed budget with foreign missions to other countries costing as much as N49,536,208,900 for the year.

The aforementioned sum would be cost of foreign missions to over 110 countries some of which includes Brazil, Germany, Sri-Lanka, Damascus, Qatar, Turkey, Istanbul and Singapore.

Away from foreign missions, the Ministry headquarters has budgeted a gross allocation of N13,424,797,653 and N2,031,199,946 respectively for both local and international travels, while N800,000,000 was allocated for repair of office building.

Cleaning and fumigation would take up to N95,907,295, while purchase of computers would cost N50,000,000.

Computer printers will cost the Foreign Affairs ministry N10,000,000 in 2016 while the purchase of motor vehicles would see N100,000,000 go out of the government’s coffers.

The acquisition of computer software for the headquarters of the ministry would rake up to N1,071,477,022 while research and development will take up N4,052,024,936.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture will be getting a total allocation of N76,753,672,275.

This allocation indicates the Federal Government’s determination to focus on the diversification of the country’s economy following the continuous downward spiral of oil prices in the global market.

Adebayo Emuleomo