Headline
Buhari, Osinbajo, Others To Get N64.72bn Severance Packages – Report

The final pay in office for President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, state governors and other political appointees about to leave office may cost the country about N64.72bn.
According to The PUNCH, the figure also covers the pay for ministers, commissioners, National Assembly members, and special advisers.
It, however, does not include special assistants and state assembly members.
The allocations by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission for salaries and allowances for one month, as well as severance gratuity (300 per cent of basic salary), were analysed to arrive at the figures.
More specifically, aside from the basic for the last month in office, the figure includes allowances, such as hardship allowance (50 per cent of basic salary), Consistency allowance (250 per cent of basic salary), motor vehicle fueling allowance (75 per cent of basic salary), entertainment allowance (45 per cent of basic salary), among others.
As stipulated by RMAFAC, Buhari is expected to get N1.71m, which includes basic salary and a few allowances and N10.54m as severance gratuity.
Vice-President Osinbajo is expected to get N1.01m plus N9.09m severance pay.
The eight special advisers in the Presidency are expected to get N590,957, which includes basic salary and a few allowances, and N5.83m severance pay each.
In total, N51.37m will be spent on the special advisers under the Presidency.
There are 44 ministers under Buhari, consisting of 27 federal ministers and 17 ministers of state.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: I Will Never Call Tinubu ‘My President’ – Tunde Bakare
While each minister is entitled to N6.73m (which includes basic salary, some allowances and severance pay), each minister of state is entitled to N6.5m.
In total, they would get N292.21m, with ministers getting N181.71m and ministers of states receiving N110.5m.
Each special adviser under the minister is entitled to a final pay of N6.42m. With each minister having one special adviser, the total sum of N282.48m will be spent.
The PUNCH checks indicate that about 327 National Assembly members would not be returning to the office.
This is made up of 76 Senators and 251 members of the House of Representatives.
While the senators will get N7.14m each, the House of Representatives members will get N6.75m each.
In total, the final pay in office of the 327 National Assembly members will cost the country about N2.24bn.
Although governorship elections were held in about 28 states, no fewer than 18 state governors will hand over to their successors on May 29, 2023.
The outgoing governors include Nyesom Wike (Rivers State), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta State), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom State), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano State), Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa State), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara State), Ben Ayade (Cross River State), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia State), and David Umahi (Ebonyi State).
Other outgoing governors include Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State), Samuel Ortom (Benue State), Darius Ishaku (Taraba State), Abubakar Bello (Niger State), Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi State), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State), Simon Lalong (Plateau State), Aminu Masari (Katsina State) and Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State).
The outgoing governors will be completing two terms of eight years in office on May 28, 2023, except Zamfara’s Matawalle, who lost his re-election attempt.
Each governor is entitled to a final pay of N7.32m while the deputy governor gets N6.96m. In total, state governors will get N131.76m while their deputies would be paid N125.28m.
With each commissioner entitled to N4.42m, a total of 356 state commissioners will get N1.57bn.
READ ALSO: Buhari Must Be Told He Failed Woefully — Ortom
Special advisers at the state level are by law entitled to N4.13m each. The 18 states have about 14,529 special advisers in total, which would cost the public treasury over N60bn.
Rivers State is expected to pay out a huge final pay on account of the high number of political appointees engaged by Governor Nyesom Wike, who last year appointed 14,000 special advisers.
The beneficiaries of the end-of-tenure pay also include the eight commissioners.
The Enugu State House Assembly has a total of 24 seats while the executive arm boasts 25 commissioners with an undisclosed number of special advisers.
Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State was reported to have appointed over 50 special advisers. The governor recently appointed another 15 special advisers to compensate the members of his party who lost out in the Peoples Democratic Party primaries. The state also boasts of about 21 commissioners supervising different ministries.
The PUNCH earlier reported that no fewer than 18 outgoing state governors will retire into lives of luxury with generous pension benefits despite mounting debts and unpaid workers’ salaries.
The PUNCH investigations showed that the governors, who will hand over to their successors on May 29, 2023, would be leaving behind at least N3.06tn debt for the incoming administrations.
READ ALSO: Buhari Receives Asset Declaration Form, Orders Outgoing Officials To Do Same
According to data from the Debt Management Office, states’ debts included N2.27tn domestic loans and $1.71bn foreign borrowing.
In a report, a senior economist with SPM Professionals, Mr Paul Alaje, described the pay and benefits as a burden on the states.
He said, “The pension is a burden for any payer, the government and the state. It only shows that people think they don’t have a life outside political offices and that is why such an amount will be budgeted for somebody who is no longer in office and who is not contributing directly to the growth and development of the state… It is unrealistic for this practice to continue. More than 60 to 70 per cent of our states are bleeding in terms of financial boost and this continues every four years.
“What we are doing is, we are deliberately plunging our country into a coma. A time will come and we are close to it when all we are generating as internally generated revenue will just be enough salaries and pensions, and only take care of political officeholders without any infrastructural development. We must condemn in strong terms the spending of the little resources we have to better the lives of politicians at the detriment of the states.”
PUNCH
Headline
Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.
“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.
READ ALSO:Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal
AFP
Headline
20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.
The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.
He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.
Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.
READ ALSO:China’s Trade Surges Despite US Tariff Threats
Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.
The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”
“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.
It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”
READ ALSO:US Threatens To Sanction Countries That Vote For Shipping Carbon Tax
According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.
The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.
According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.
The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Headline
South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.
The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.
“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.
READ ALSO:South African Court Finds Radical Politician Malema Guilty On Gun Charges
Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.
The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.
South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.
AFP
- News1 day ago
BREAKING: Rev Uma Ukpai Is Dead
- Politics4 days ago
Makinde Calls Out Umahi Over Coastal Highway Cost Analysis
- News3 days ago
FULL LIST: Newly Released Subject Combinations For WAEC 2026 Examination WAEC
- News4 days ago
AGILE Leads 200 Girls On Road Walk To Create Awareness In Bauchi
- Headline4 days ago
Burkina Rejects US Deportees, Calls Trump’s Proposal Indecent
- News5 days ago
BRC Sympathises With Edo NSCDC, Family, On Painful Death Of Commandant
- Headline3 days ago
Top 10 Most Powerful Countries In The World In 2025 And Why
- Headline4 days ago
Transgender Woman Jailed For Deceiving Man About Gender In UK
- News3 days ago
Edo: Council Boss Attacked During Traffic Intervention At MUYI Line
- Politics1 day ago
Tinubu Under Fire Over Presidential Pardon For Drug Offenders