Babatunji Wusu –
Temitope Ajayi, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, has provided clarification regarding the N6.9 billion luxury car allocation included in the Supplementary Budget.
The Office of the First Lady will receive N1.5 billion for new cars, as part of President Bola Tinubu’s proposal to spend N6.9 billion on State House vehicle purchases.
Recall that the National Assembly was consulted before the President submitted the N2.17 trillion Supplementary Budget for approval.
Outrage was caused by the development, and many Nigerians expressed their disapproval of Tinubu’s choice.
Temitope said in a statement on Thursday that the N6.9 billion will be used to buy cars for the President, his vice, Kashim Shettima, and political assistants at the State House who require functional vehicles.
Since President Tinubu took office, he claimed, no political appointee has profited from the public coffers or taken a salary.
The text of the statement said, “The N6 billion budgetary allocation is not intended just for the purchase of automobiles for the President and Vice President. There are no new cars in the fleets of President Tinubu or Vice President Shettima. They drive cars that they inherited. At the State House, there are hundreds of political aides and public servants that require operational automobiles. I work for the President as a top aide. I had been driving my own automobile since I started working again more than five months ago.
Nearly all of the President’s appointments, including myself, use their own private automobiles for official business. The majority of the cars used by different agencies are outdated. Not even the State House Press Corps has a working bus to make moving around easier. I have firsthand knowledge that the State House Press Corps’ request for a new bus is included in the supplemental budget for vehicles.
It is imperative to mention that not a single political appointee has received any benefits or advantages from the public coffers. I should also mention that, due to procedural problems in entering new hires into the payroll system through IPPIS, we have not even gotten a kobo in salary in the last five months.
“The Presidency employs hundreds of people and is a massive bureaucracy. The role of a State House budget director is to oversee the system, not to serve the opulent ambitions of the President and Vice President in office. It is simple to incite public anger in this era of social media and pageviews. In an attempt to drive readers to their blogs and news websites, bloggers and quack journalists may find it alluring to go the sensationalist route. However, I think that substantive and nuanced reporting is what makes for effective journalism.
