At a time millions of Nigerians could barely feed due to the impact of government policies on the cost of living, the State House, which is the seat of the president and the vice president, spent N5.9 billion on cars.
Nigeria is experiencing its worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation due to government policies like petrol subsidy removal and floating of the naira. These policies have seen food prices increase by over 200 per cent without a commensurate increase in earnings, thus driving more people to poverty in Africa’s most-populous country. The situation did not, however, prevent the State House from spending the N5.9 billion on vehicles in 2024.
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On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Special Duties queried the State House for spending N3.9 billion to purchase operational vehicles and another N2 billion to replace its Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in 2024.
The committee demanded an explanation on the purchases when the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Temitope Fashedemi, appeared before it to defend its 2025 budgetary allocations.
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Giving the breakdown of its 2024 expenditures earlier, Mr Fashedemi said the State House was allocated N4 billion to purchase operational vehicles, but N3.9 billion was released for the purpose.
He also said the N2 billion appropriated for the replacement of SUVs was released.
However, the senators criticised the expenditure, insisting that the State House did not need additional operational vehicles.
Abdul Ningi, Bauchi Central senator, sought to know why it needed to replace the SUVs.
Mr Ningi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), demanded the type, model, and number of vehicles that were purchased with the funds.
“Purchased motor vehicles of State House operational vehicles – appropriation was N4 billion, releases was N3.9 billion. For the replacement of SUVs, you have appropriated N2 billion, and the release was N2 billion.
“What kind of vehicles are we talking about, and how many of them are purchased? What is the model?
“And then you also talk about the replacement of SUV vehicles, in which N2 billion was appropriated and N2 billion was released. What is a replacement, and how many of them have you replaced,” Mr Ningi asked.
Adamawa Central senator Aminu Abbas described the spending report as “deceit”.
“I want to tell you that whoever prepared this table prepared it to deceive us. It is completely a deceit. That’s what I mean. I am an accountant. You can’t prepare a report like this. It is deceit.
“You can’t release less than five per cent, and you tell us 100 per cent utilisation performance. I don’t know who prepared this. Who prepared this? Is it an accountant? If it’s an accountant, I will tell the person to revoke his licence,” he said.
Continuing, Mr Abbas asked the permanent secretary to justify the purchase of the operational vehicles and the replacement of the SUVs.
He said, “When it comes to operational vehicles, you said operational vehicles. And now you also said SUVs. What are operational vehicles? What are SUVs? You cannot tell Nigerians that you have operational vehicles and also have SUVs.
“So what is SUV? We should clearly state things the way they are so that we will be able to interpret them the way they are. Period!”
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Responding, Mr Fashedemi said he assumed the position of permanent secretary of the State House last month. So he would be unable to understand the rationale behind purchasing the vehicles.
He also said the items were listed in the approved budget of 2024, and therefore, it is mandatory for the State House to carry out the procurements.
In essence, the official argued that since the spendings were properly budgeted, his office did nothing wrong.
The lawmakers appeared convinced by the argument.
The Chairman of the committee, Kaka Shehu, urged the permanent secretary to ensure a cordial relationship between the legislature and the State House.
Mr Shehu (SAN) said the previous State House management did not maintain a cordial relationship with the committee.
PREMIUM TIMES has reported how Nigeria’s annual budgets include ridiculous proposals, including some inserted by lawmakers.
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