President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila is expected to get a total allocation of N21 billion in the next year’s budget presented to the National Assembly by the President last month.
According to Peoples Gazette, a breakdown of the proposed figure, shows that Mr Gbajabiamila wants N104 million for the purchase of computers and printers. For ‘local travel and transport for international training,’ the CoS office plans to spend N579 million, while ‘miscellaneous’ is expected to gulp N103 million.
A further breakdown of the proposed budgetary allocations shows that N10 billion will go for residence renovations.
Computer software purchase is expected to gulp about N10.1 billion and N290 million is the allocation for purchase of vehicles.
Last week, it was reported that President Tinubu presented a budget of N27.50 trillion for 2024.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff to President has clarified that the N10 billion in the 2024 budget was not for the renovation of his official residence.
In a statement he released on December 6, Gbajabiamila said that the sums quoted are for the renovation of the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the VP’s lodge in Lagos.
The money is only being warehoused in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President for the said projects for the President’s quarters and the VP’s lodge in Lagos and not his own residence.
However, a comparative analysis of budgets so warehoused by past CoS to the president from 2020 shows that 2024 marks a drastic difference in allocations to the office.
According to Statisense, in 2020, the allocation was about N24m. In 2021 it rose to N76m. The highest in the last four years was N526m in 2022.
This contrasts sharply with the N21 billion Gbajabiamila’s office is proposing to receive in 2024.
