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Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal has disclosed that the country has not paid the salaries and allowances due to  former heads of state including Yakubu Gowon, Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.

The SGF speaking to visiting members of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs in Abuja said President Buhari has not been able to disburse to the former leaders their salaries for the past 10 months because of lack of funds. He said:

“There is a department responsible for payment of former president’ entitlements. At present, funds are not available in service wide votes to do that.

“We are aware there was a protest in Bayelsa State that the former president was not paid, but we’ve explained that he’s not the only one affected. Others affected are Inter-Religious Council, Traditional Rulers Council and so on. For some reason, we have been writing and writing, but there has been no response. And there is presently no money to pay them.

“The budget for this year’s democracy day was N33 million, and we had to do it on credit; we are yet to pay. There are lots of retreat, which ought to be organised but there’s no money to do any. The last time we got any release was in August.”

Senator Aliyu Wamakko, former Governor of Sokoto State now representing Sokoto North in the Senate said:

“We can understand if former President Goodluck Jonathan has not been paid because he just left office. But for someone like Shagari, who lives from hand to mouth is something I can’t understand. This development is really unfortunate; it doesn’t indicate seriousness, and it doesn’t indicate fairness.”

Attempting to calm the lawmakers, the SGF said: “When I got into this office, there was a lot of money in this account, but there was no TSA (Treasury Single Account).Before the government left office, they jacked up salaries. We told former Presidents Jonathan and Obasanjo that they could not earn twice what the others were earning. So we told them we wanted to review it, and we did. So they now earn what the others earn as well.

“When I came into office, there was N1.5 billion in the account. We had payment of all liabilities, which came to N700 million. Then we wrote to the president to return what was left to the TSA. That was how we came back to a zero balance. It is painful to me because as a person I know all of them (ex-presidents) personally. Now, why have we not been able to get the money? We requested a budget of N700 million, but the president has his way of doing things.

“Look around, you’ll see government vehicles breaking down every now and then. Really, I know the challenges the budget office is facing, but the truth is the funds are not just there. In any government, there are certain agencies that must be served first before others. So we have agreed on that. However, we will lean harder on the finance ministry to see that the situation is turned around.