The Presidency’s 2015 culinary expenditures

The Presidency is allocated a total of N26.6 billion (N12.9 for personnel, N11.1 billion for overhead and N2.5 billion capital development fund) in 2015. Specifically, President Jonathan will spend N1.9 billion on travels and transport, while others under the president’s office will spend N1.3 billion on local travels and transport, and another N621.067 million on […]

The Presidency is allocated a total of N26.6 billion (N12.9 for personnel, N11.1 billion for overhead and N2.5 billion capital development fund) in 2015. Specifically, President Jonathan will spend N1.9 billion on travels and transport, while others under the president’s office will spend N1.3 billion on local travels and transport, and another N621.067 million on international travels and transport.
 Vice President Sambo will spend N42.4 million on travels and transport, while officials in his office will spend N19.6 million for local travels and transport and N10.7 million for international travel and transport. Local travel and transport will also get another N12 million.
President Jonathan will also spend N517 million on miscellaneous, N456 million on honoraria and ‘sitting allowance’ and N60.8 million on publicity and advertisements. The vice president will spend N117million on miscellaneous items, N15 million on honoraria and sitting allowance, as well as N35 million on publicity and advertisements.
The president and vice president will together spend N1.2 billion on foodstuff and kitchen items. And another N310 million will go for purchase of drugs and medical laboratory equipment. Separate from the transport expenses is an allocation to the presidential air fleet of N5.3 billion, with N36.1 million as salaries while the remaining sum to be spent on overheads and capital expenditure. Clearly, these outlandish allocations do not take into account, or completely ignore, the belt-tightening measures that the government said it expects Nigerians to make this year as part of a cost-cutting programme.
Indeed, if the budget proposals were made before the sudden decline in earnings from crude oil exports, President Jonathan did not hint at any possible adjustment to the provisions to his office when he addressed the nation yesterday in his New Year message.
While many indicators reveal that more Nigerians are slipping into poverty, Jonathan prided his administration for ‘creating’ more billionaire Nigerians since it took office. With the rising number of internally displaced persons due to the activities of insurgents that the government has so far failed to put down, and the statistics of Nigerians struggling to eat, in juxtaposition with the Presidency’s food bills, depict, at the very least, a lack of sensitivity.
It is true that the president regularly has guests that wine and dine at state expense and are entertained, it is debatable whether it needs so much money for that. The Presidency should show some reasonableness to be frugal in tune with the times. It should also be questioned whether the expenses of the president’s political campaigns and the events that go with them would be charged to state coffers or to his personal emolument.
Conceivably, not all the culinary items are produced locally, a possible cause of the huge bills. The government should encourage local production and to cut cost.
For instance, throughout his two-term tenure, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure disdained foreign foods and drinks and sartorial choices in the State House, insisting on the local varieties and encouraging Nigerians to do likewise. This is a patriotic example that needs to be emulated now. Besides, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Okonjo-Iweala observed that the price of foodstuffs in the country has not risen; if that is indeed the case, the government has no business allocation such large sums for food.
 “In  Ogbete market in Enugu, the wholesale price for beans, gari (white) and sorghum did not change between October 10th and December 15th, but the wholesale price of gari (white) (100 kg) declined from 6,800 to 3,800. So the prices of foodstuffs have remained relatively stable. Even as of this morning, checks in various locations such as the Ugah and Achina markets in Anambra State, and the Central and Station markets in Kaduna showed relative stability in prices,” she said.
So the pertinent question regarding the austerity measure the government plans to adopt is whether they do not affect the Presidency? The government also wants to increase tax, further squeezing the average Nigerians.  The citizens should be asked to toil in very demanding circumstances to prop up the lifestyles of a few members of the elite.
The Presidency should not be above making sacrifices so that its message of austerity can then make sense and be understood.