El-Rufai’s son, Bello, protests yearly purchase of vehicles for Tinubu, others
Amidst economic woes, hunger and deprivation in Nigeria, the State House has allocated N15.09bn for the purchase of tyres for bulletproof vehicles, Sport Utility Vehicles, operational vehicles, and plain cars, as well as for the construction of an office complex for Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants.
It also proposed a total sum of N5.49bn as a provision for the annual maintenance of the Presidential Villa. This was disclosed in the 2025 Appropriation Bill released by the Budget Office of the Federation.
President Bola Tinubu presented the budget titled “Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity” to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Dec. 18, outlining a N49.70tn spending plan.
In the appropriation bill document, the State House will spend N164m for the purchase of tyres for bulletproof vehicles, plain cars, jeeps, platform trucks, and other utility and operational vehicles. Out of the sum, N1.1bn was earmarked for the replacement of SUV vehicles, and N3.66bn for the purchase of State House operational vehicles.
It stated that N127.86m will be spent on the procurement of SUVs for Mr President and the Vice President. This cost will be covered by the office of the president. Also, N285m will be spent for the purchase of motor vehicles under the office of the Chief of staff to the president, while the Chief security officer to the President got an allocation of N179.63m for the purchase of security and operational vehicles.
N2.12bn was allocated for honorarium and sitting allowances and the proposed spending of N1.83bn for the construction of an office complex for Special Advisers and Senior Special advisers. Meanwhile, Bello El-Rufai, eldest son of former Kaduna State Governor and chairman of Senate Committee on Banking, has protested the purchase of vehicles, computers, utensils and other items in every budget circle of the government.
In the N49.7 trillion budget submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday, December 17, the presidency proposed the sum of N164.9 million on buying tyres for State House bullet proof vehicles, plain cars and Jeeps.
In the 2024 supplementary budget, the presidency allocated N6.9 billion for the procurement of vehicles for the State House, and N1.5 billion allocated for new cars for the Office of the First Lady.
Speaking on the recurrence of such items as cars, computers, utensils and others in every budget circle, Bello El-Rufai said it is wasteful and should be scrapped. He made the remarks during a debate on the budget in the House of Representatives.
He said: “The recurring issue in every budget is the budget for vehicles. We budget for computers every year. We budget for utensils every year. Vehicles don’t expire. These are the little things we should look at otherwise the blocking of loopholes we talked about will not come.
“Since I was a child, the budget every year has come with new computers, and new furniture. We should cut them out totally if we must block loopholes.”
