2024 budget: Presidency to Spend N61.29 billion on Renovating Buildings, N6.82 billion on Buying Vehicles 

For this report, our analysis focuses on the budgetary allocations for state house headquarters, president, vice president, chief of staff to the president, chief security officer to the president, state house medical centre and state house liaison office in Lagos, which are all under the presidency.

Nairametrics further observed some of the allocations contained in the 2023 supplementary budget were presented in the 2024 proposed budget, such as the allocation for the renovation of the quarters of the president and vice president.

State House Headquarter

A greater share of the spending on buying vehicles can be found under the allocation for the state house headquarters. Out of the N6.82 billion for the purchase of vehicles, the state house headquarter is allocated N6.35 billion.

Under this, N6 billion is budgeted for the purchase of motor vehicles, which include N4 billion for state house operational vehicles and N2 billion for replacement of SUVs. There is also a plan to spend N351.08 million on buying tyres for bulletproof vehicles, and cars, among others.

It also plans to spend about N28.18 billion on repairing, maintaining and constructing buildings. The largest spending is N13.7 billion on repairing residential buildings. It is followed by N7 billion on the provision of office buildings and N3.5 billion on the renovation of the state house annex.

It was also disclosed that another N3.5 billion will be spent on building office complex for special advisers and senior special assistants.

President and Vice President

Although there is no direct allocation for vehicles under the president’s office, probably to avoid any backlash, about N649.83 million is budgeted for building repairs and renovation.

This includes N149.83 million for building maintenance and N500 million for renovating the president’s quarters at the state house, and presidential villa in Abuja.

In the case of the president, there is no direct allocation for vehicles under the vice president’s office. However, about N633.7 million is budgeted for renovating resident buildings and N300 million for renovating the vice president’s quarters at the state house, and presidential villa in Abuja.

It appears that the president and the vice president quarters demand non-stop renovations as provisions were made in the 2023 supplementary budget for similar purposes in billions. In the supplementary budget, N4 billion was budgeted for renovating the president’s quarters while N3 billion was budgeted for that of the vice president.

However, while the location was not stated for the president, the location for that of the vice president is the quarters in Lagos. Nairametrics observed that the same allocation for the vice president quarters in the supplementary budget is also contained in the allocation for the chief of staff to the president at a higher cost of N5 billion.

Chief of Staff to the President

The Office of the Chief of Staff to the President has a budget of N633.7 million to purchase vehicles. This is the same amount budgeted for renovating residential buildings under the office of the vice presidency. This may suggest that the office just randomly placed a figure there for the sake of it.

This office also budgeted about N30 billion for renovating buildings. A breakdown shows that N10 billion is for the repairs of residential buildings and another N10 billion to digitise the state house and Lagos state offices and quarters. In the 2023 supplementary budget, N200 million was budgeted for this same purpose of state house digitization.

Another similar allocation is the renovation of Dodan Barrack’s presidential lodge for about N5 billion in the 2024 budget but was N4 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget.

There is also another N5 billion for renovating the vice president’s quarters in Lagos, although there was provision for it in the 2023 supplementary budget. 

Chief Security Officer to the President

This has the smallest allocation as about N78.87 million is for the purchase of security and operational vehicles.

State House Medical Centre

This office has no allocation for vehicles, only for repairs and construction of buildings for about N1.13 billion. The largest of its building allocations is the construction of hospitals and health centres for N283 million. There is also the construction of two blocks of 24 units of three-bedroom flats at the centre for N231 million, the construction of office buildings for N200 million, and the construction of call duty doctors’ quarters for the state house medical centre.

Nairametrics observed that the total amount to be spent on construction is not up to one per cent of what will be spent on renovating the quarters of the president and vice president

State House Liaison Office in Lagos

There is N100 million for the provision of treated vehicles, ambulances, coaster buses, SUVs (8 Prado jeeps) for presidential/VIP movements.

It has a total of N389.32 million for the renovation and maintenance of buildings. A breakdown shows that the largest allocation is for the repairs of office buildings for N132.43 million. There is also a budget of N82.43 million for routine maintenance of state house Lagos facilities (Dodan barracks, Vice President/guest houses at Ikoyi). About N40 million was for repairs of residential buildings.

More Insight

The Labour Party Presidential flag bearer in the last general election in the country, Peter Obi, has criticised the government for proposing to spend more than N20 billion renovating and constructing a new office space for the vice president.

The LP candidate stated that he is still reviewing the N27.5 trillion budget that was presented to the National Assembly last week. However, he could not help but be astounded by the level of waste on non-essential items.

Reacting in his X handle, Obi said:

“Even as I am still studying the 2024 fiscal budget as presented to the National Assembly last week, I cannot wait as am compelled to ask what is exactly wrong with us as a country.

“I ask this question because it is hard for me to understand some of the recent happenings in our nation, in these critical times.

“The recent news about a budget provision of N15 billion for the construction of a new residence for the Vice President is both shocking and disheartening, considering the many important challenges facing our nation.”

He added, “Just recently in the Supplementary Budget, the sum of N2.5 billion was included for the renovation of the Vice President’s residence in Abuja, which means that he already has a residence. Again, during the budget presentation, I heard the sum of N3 billion was allocated for the renovation of the Vice President’s residence in Lagos. If we total all these sums, we would have budgeted the sum of N20.5 billion for the housing of the Vice President at this critical time when we are not just the world’s poverty capital, but more people falling into poverty, with so many Nigerians not knowing where their next meal will come from”

The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, has also posted in his X to clarify on the allocation for building renovations in the 2024 budget, following backlash on social media platforms.

He said, “I have seen social media commentary regarding the 2024 Appropriation Bill, particularly the provisions under the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. Owing to the erroneous nature of these reports, it has become necessary to clarify that there is no provision in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for the renovation of any residence for the Chief of Staff to the President. I live in my private residence.

He further said, “The sums mischievously quoted by online bloggers and fake news merchants are for renovating the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the Presidency. The sums proposed for these projects are clearly stated in the budget proposal and bear no resemblance to the deceptive online commentary.

He furtherly stated,  “This administration welcomes and encourages scrutiny of government expenditure; this is why the Budget proposal is publicly available. However, healthy public debate about government actions requires us to be responsible with our utterances and engage based on facts rather than insinuations and falsehoods.”