Joachim Okhai

President Muhammadu Buhari will presents the 2018 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly today (Tuesday). The 2018 budget proposal presentation is scheduled to hold at 2pm. The Federal Government plans to spend about N8.6tn next year, a jump of about 15 per cent from the N7.44tn budgeted for the current year. The figures were contained in the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which Buhari had earlier sent to the National Assembly in compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. The PUNCH, however, gathered that leaders of both the Senate and the House of Representatives were making last minute efforts to prevent drama during the presentation. A source in the Senate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed on Monday that both the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, held series of meetings with members of both chamb...

Soldier Writes Buhari: We Borrow Money From Civilians To Feed. A soldier who refused to disclose his identity has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari to complain about the alleged corruption in the army. The officer on the frontline of the war against insurgency wrote the letter in reaction to the army’s dismissal of the complaints of Abdulrauf Aliyu, a private of the Nigerian army. Aliyu had complained that he was abandoned after being shot by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. But Sani Usman, spokesman of the army, denied the allegation, saying Aliyu was declared a deserter for leaving the hospital he was receiving treatment without being cleared by the authorities. Usman said as a deserter, Aliyu should be apprehended and handed over to the nearest military unit or police station,  if seen. “This is a clear case of a deserter from the Nigerian army trying to run a campaign of calumny against the Nigerian army on Social Media,” Usman had said. But t...