2018 budget: Govt votes N1b for State House Clinic

   

    The Executive has proposed to spend N1,030,458,453 on the State House Clinic under the Presidency’s total estimate of N51,445,678,808 in the 2018 Budget proposal.

   The clinic came under focus recently when the President’s wife, Hajia Aisha Buhari, criticised it for being without “ordinary syringe” and unable to treat anyone. The breakdown of the State House Medical Centre’s expenditure includes the proposed allocation of N408 million for medical equipment, N146 million for the completion of the dental wing’s extension and N120 million for construction of two blocks of 24 units three bedroom flats.

     The National Assembly is expected to begin the screening of the budget next week. Approval is likely to be end of the year so as to return the country to the January-December budget cycle.  The details of the National Assembly’s N125 billion estimate remain undisclosed. That has been the case since 1999 in spite of the leadership’s transparency promise.

    Some expenditure to be undertaken at the Presidency include N145 million for food stuff / catering materials supplies, N165 million for maintenance of motor vehicle / transport equipment, N132 million on fuel & lubricants, N67 million for vehicles’ fuel, N45 million for generator fuel, N18 million on gas, N135,668,651 on refreshment & meals while honorarium & sitting allowance is to take N478,313,996. Also, ongoing rehabilitation work on the Presidency’s animal enclosure and procurement of its veterinary  lab equipment is to cost N12,489,655, upgrade of the presidential villa ranch and construction of wildlife mini-zoo is proposed at a cost of N28,908,625 while N24 million is for local flowers’ nursery, irrigation and upgrade of a helipad grass field.

  

   Also, annual routine maintenance of mechanical/electrical installations at the Presidential villa is proposed for N4,860,392,146, outstanding liabilities on routine maintenance and other services for 2016 is allocated N565. 6 million while N83. 7 million is allocated for the purchase of tyres for bullet proof vehicles, trucks, jeeps, ambulance and other utility vehicles. The routine maintenance of State House Lagos facilities (Dodan Barracks, VP Residence/Guest Houses at Ikoyi) is to be undertaken at a cost of N145,869,150 under the 2018 national budget.

    Also proposed is over N25.5 billion to be spent on surveillance activities across the country.Nigeria will be strengthening its security architecture with some high tech surveillance infrastructure in 2018. In the vanguard of this intense surveillance operation is the Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) that plans to purchase a social media minning suite for N2,213,456,360. Also in 2018, the DSS has proposed to spend N 1,006,200,000 on surveillance drones with precision camera and IMSI payload capabilities.