Despite widespread economic hardship and soaring inflation across the country, the Federal Government has allocated N5 billion towards the renovation of the vice president’s official residence in Lagos State.

In the N2.17tn supplementary budget passed in November 2023, the Federal Government had budgeted N3bn for the renovation of the vice president’s official residence in Lagos State and another N2.5bn for the renovation of his official residence located within the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.

However, checks by our correspondent using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, 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.

Similarly, on September 5, 2024, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President paid the same firm N726,748,686 for additional renovation work on the VP’s Lagos home.

On the same day, the Chief of Staff’s office paid N1,480,209,326 to the same firm for Phase 2 renovations of the VP’s Lagos residence.

Recall that in November 2023, the Federal Capital Territory Administration said it would spend N15bn to build a “befitting” official residence for the Vice President in Abuja.

The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed this while appearing before the House of Representatives committee to defend the FCT’s N61.5bn 2023 supplementary budget.

But an advocacy group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, 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 won’t get rid of profligacy in its governance.

Punch