PRESIDENCY SPENT N9.2B TO PURCHASE VEHICLES IN THREE MONTHS AMID HARDSHIP
A review of Public Payments platform Open Treasury portal has shown that the President Bola Tinubu-led Presidency under the “State House” spent the sum of N9.2billion on motor vehicles between March and May 2024.
The review shows that in March 2024, the sum of N1.904 billion was recorded as used to purchase motor vehicles.
In May, another sum of N7.3billion was spent to buy motor vehicles by the State House, totalling N9.2billion in the three-month period.
The Tinubu led Presidency had earlier spent N366 million on tyres in three days among other seemingly frivolous expenses.
It was found that N366million was spent on tyres in three days and the payments were made on May 21, 2024, June 22, 2023, and June 24, 2023.
There was a single-day expenditure of N42.8 million on June 22, 2023, for “State House” tyres.
Another sum of N86.2 million was spent to purchase tyres on June 24.
The description read “Purchase of Tyres to State House.” Two payments were registered on May 21, 2024.
The Presidency spent N38 million on the supply of five (5) nos s600/222 armoured/bullet proof tyres (255-720-r490ac).
Another sum of N200.5 million was paid for supply of tyres for bullet proof vehicles to State House, Abuja.
In total, the Presidency spent N366 million in three days on the purchase of tyres, according to details on the Govspend platform.
The Tinubu-led administration had also spent billions on purchasing foreign exchange for travels and rehabilitation of Presidential buildings.
Also the Presidency was noted as spending N1.5 billion for foreign exchange on July 17,2024.
This has added to the high level of scrutiny of the current administration fiscal discipline.
The development comes at a time when there are concerns on prudence of the government in managing its scarce resources.
It also comes amid plea for debt relief by the Nigerian government, signalling a dire need for more revenue and better management of resources by it.
Nigeria’s debt stands at N121 trillion as of the first quarter of 2024 while it continues to grapple with poor economic made harder by inflation.
Experts have warned that there may be dire consequences if the government does not regulate how it spends the nation’s scarce resources.
Nigeria suffers from myriad of challenges from access to healthcare, water, roads, electricity and other basic needs, which stakeholders opine that the government can exert its efforts on instead.