By Chioma Obinagwam
An X user, Obiasogu David, has taken to his handle to condemn the wastefulness of the current administration.
Confiance News took a tour to his official X handle and gathered excerpts of his claims.
David vents:
Here are the facts…
The latest worm to creep out of the “can of worms” in Tinubu’s govt is the newly-commissioned Vice President house, built for Shettima.
The date was June 7th. Tinubu, flanked by his enablers – Godswill Akpabio, Wike, and others – “proudly” commissioned the N21 billion Vice President’s Residence. The house bow becomes the official residence of the Vice Presidents of Nigeria. Shettima is yet to move in.
Some details about the new residence…
The house which is located at the “Three Arms Zone,” in Aso Rock, was initiated and started in 2010, by Goodluck Jonathan. At the time, it was awarded for N7 billion. The contractor was Julius Berger.
Osibanjo confirmed that the building was 85% completed before Jonathan left office in 2015. N6 billion had already been spent on it. What remained were some exterior touches and interior furnishing. Picture proof👇
It’s worth empathizing that Nigeria already has an official and a very befitting residence for the Vice President. That’s the Akinola Aguda House – that’s where Shettima currently lives.
The residence was constructed in the late 1980s, under Shehu Shaghari, just few years after Murtala Muhammed moved Nigeria’s capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1976. It’s initially built to serve as the Presidential Lodge & Guest House Complex – and it’d be a temporary official residence for the President.
But when Babangida took over, he constructed the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and moved in on December 12, 1991. From that day, the Aguda house was reserved as the official residence of the Vice President.
Now, when Buhari took over, Osibanjo chose to stay at the Aguda House. Jonathan’s VO, Namadi Sambo took Osibanjo on a tour around the house on May 28th, 2015, a day before he and Buhari were sworn in.
On 27th February, 2016, Osibanjo publicly rejected the new Vice Presidential residence. He said it’s the brainchild of Jonathan’s administration and was a waste of money – because the existing residence, Aguda House is of “high standard, with enough space, and befitting to be the official residence of the VP.”
He added that “the priority of Buhari’s govt wasn’t to complete the new VP residence.” So, for both the 2016 and 2017 budgets of Buhari’s govt, no provisions was made for the completion of the new VP’s residence.
Surprisingly, late in 2017, Buhari’s govt secretly allocated money to continue the construction of the building. In fact, they allocated N250 million to build a gatemen house in the residence which they had earlier rejected.
When it leaked, it attracted resounding rejection from everyone. In fact, the senate committee on FCT, chaired by Dino Melaye asked that the entire project be halted immediately.
So, the building was left that way. But then, security officials – including the Military – have continued to guard it, even when it’s deserted.
Now…
Tinubu’s govt came in and, in their first year, of all the important projects to complete in the FCT, they chose the Vice Presidential residence – for obvious reasons – to l00t.
On November 30th, 2023, when FCT Minister, Wike was defending his FCT Supplementary budget which totaled N61 billion, he revealed that they allocated N15 billion to complete the almost-completed new VP residence. It happened on the floor of the House of Reps Committee on FCT.
Interestingly, House of Reps members passed the budget with speed, without any changes at all. Of course, it was expected because Tinubu was the one who sent the budget to them, on Nov 28th, 2023, and ordered them to give it “accelerated hearing.”
In his defense, Wike said the building would be redesigned and reconstructed. That’s why the amount was that high – N15 billion. But of course, when the building was completed, it still carried the initial design. Nothing was pulled down from the structure.
More strikingly, the reconstruction of the building consumed more than N21 billion as against the N15 billion allocated to it in the FCT Supplementary budget – with a huge N6 billion difference.
Here’s what’s more revealing…
To be continued in part II
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