2019 budget: Buhari, Osinbajo to spend over N7.5billion on operations and maintenance of office buildings

– Details of the 2019 budget are beginning to find their way to public domain

– The yearly expenses of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo have also been made public

– The high cost of governance in Nigeria reflects heavily on the proposed budget

A report by The Punch has shown the breakdown of presidential expenses in the proposed 2019 budget.

Details of the budget reveals that the Federal Government budgeted N1,001,318,171 for President Muhammadu Buhari’s local and international travels in the proposed 2019 budget.

The budget proposes N250,021,595 for the president’s local trips and N751,296,576 for him to travel internationally.

For Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, N83,974,710 was budgeted for local travel, while N217,060,883 was proposed for his international trips.

Under foodstuff/catering materials supplies, N98,306,492 was budgeted for the president and N50,888,218 for the vice president.

Also, the federal government proposed N416,668,229 for the construction of the presidential wing of the State House Medical Centre out of the presidency’s total estimate of N49, 307,859,794 in the 2019 budget proposal.

Aside from this, N823,441,666 was proposed for the State House Medical Centre, including drug and medical supplies (N208,350,424).

The State House also budgeted N36, 787,354 for drug and medical supplies, and N51,821,160 for medical expenses.

A further look at the budget indicates that Buhari and Osinbajo are to spend over N7.5bn this year on “operations” and maintenance of office buildings.

The entire State House was also allocated N49.3bn for general services, covering capital, recurrent and overhead costs.

However, the president’s office was given a dedicated vote of N10bn for the running of his office, out of which N7.5bn went for operations.

To maintain presidential office buildings will cost N4.7bn this year.

Similarly, the president’s direct overhead cost is N1.3bn, while his capital spending will consume another N416.6m, bringing the total figure for “operations” alone to N1.7bn.

On his part, Osinbajo is to spend N591.8m on operations.

Out of the figure, N448.6m goes into overhead costs, while the balance of N143.2m will be spent on capital provisions under operations.

A further breakdown of the presidential budget showed that the presidency would buy vehicles worth N607.1m this year.

Aside from the N4.7bn budgeted for the maintenance of office buildings, the presidential residential buildings will be rehabilitated with another N140.4m.

The item titled ‘refreshments/meals’ has an allocation of N135.6m and an additional N25.6m, meaning a total N161.2m.

Similarly, a provision of N65.4m was made for the animals in the State House for their “conservation.”

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised President Buhari not to bother with any New Year message, stating that the president has nothing to offer Nigerians after his promise of more hardship in the coming year.

President Buhari is expected to deliver a new year message to Nigerians on Tuesday, January 1, 2019.