The Federal Government has proposed to spend the sum of N393,661,239 on the ongoing construction of the presidential wing of the State House Medical Centre at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja in 2023.
This was disclosed in the budget proposal of N20.51 trillion presented by President Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly last Friday for the 2023 fiscal year.
Interestingly, the State House clinic is not used by President Buhari in spite of the huge funds voted to the medical centre every year.
President Buhari visits London, United Kingdom for his medical treatments.
In 2017, the wife of the president, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari made headlines when she openly berated the management of the State House Clinic for not equipping the clinic with as little as a syringe. She said when she visited, there was no single syringe.
President Buhari’s daughter, Zahra made a similar observation on her Instagram handle some time ago. She called out the Permanent Secretary of the State House Clinic, Jalal Arabi, for not being able to provide ‘ordinary paracetamol’ in the clinic even though N331.7 million was allocated to the State House Clinic in that year’s budget.
Sahara Reporters reported that in 2020 and 2021, the sums of N416.6 million and N1.06 billion were budgeted respectively for the construction of the Presidential (VIP) Wing of the State House Clinic, and as at March this year, the Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijanni Umar, confirmed the money had already been paid in full.
The Permanent Secretary, Umar also disclosed that out of the N20.8 billion allocated for the same project in the 2022 budget, the federal government had paid N8.5 billion.
It, therefore, means that between 2020 and 2022, at least the sum of N10 billion has been spent on the construction of the Presidential Wing of the State House Clinic.
