The Nigerian government under President Bola Tinubu has spent N5billion from the country’s public funds to renovate the Vice President’s official residence in Lagos State.
This was revealed in data available on GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Nigerian government’s spending.
The platform showed that a total of N5,034,077,063 was spent in May and September this year for the renovation of the VP’s Lagos residence.
A monthly breakdown of the amount showed that on May 31, 2024, the State House paid N2,827,119,051 to an engineering firm, Denderi Investment Limited, for the renovation of the official quarters of the vice president in Lagos.
On September 5, 2024, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President paid the same business N726,748,686 for more refurbishment work on the Vice President’s Lagos mansion.
On the same day, the Chief of Staff’s office paid N1,480,209,326 to the same business for Phase 2 renovations of the Vice President’s Lagos home.
Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Abuja, had also said it would spend N15billion to build a “befitting” official residence for the Vice President in Abuja.
The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had disclosed this while appearing before the House of Representatives committee to defend the FCT’s N61.5billion 2023 supplementary budget.
This disclosure generated a lot of outrage from concerned Nigerians and institutions.
For instance, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) objected to the expenditure, describing it as a fundamental breach of the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international anti-corruption and human rights obligations.
“It will be a grave violation of the public trust and constitutional oath of office for the Senate to approve the plan to spend N15bn on ‘a befitting residence’ for the Vice President at a time when the Federal Government is set to spend 30 per cent (that is, N8.25tn) of the country’s 2024 budget of N27.5tn on debt service costs,” SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, stated.
The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the current administration had not been truthful about its stance to reduce the cost of governance, noting that if it had been sincere, it would have reduced allocations in its various implemented budgets over the last 16 months.
Also, the Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said until a new constitution is formulated to regulate government spending, the country would not get rid of profligacy in its governance.
