2023 Budget: Buhari, Osinbajo to spend N11.92bn on food, foreign trips

The offices of the President and Vice-President will spend N11.92bn on local and foreign trips and the presidential air fleet.

The amount also includes N1.58bn earmarked for aircraft maintenance and N1.60bn allocated for the overhaul of the Gulfstream GV and CL605 aircraft engines.

Members of the National Assembly, on the other hand, will get N100bn for constituency projects, which according to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, have been characterised by corruption.

Sunday PUNCH reports that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Friday presented to a joint session of the National Assembly a budget proposal of N20.51tn for the 2023 fiscal year.

The budget is about N750bn higher than the N19.76tn earlier proposed in the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

An examination of the appropriation bill revealed that the Office of the President will spend N2.49bn on local and foreign trips, while that of the Vice-President will spend N846.61m on the same item.

In the document, the PAF’s budget is categorised under the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Aircraft fuelling will cost the government N250m, purchase of air navigational and defence equipment will gulp N1.50bn, while N650m will go for a new mobile helicopter landing pad.

Bank charges will gulp N36.15m and insurance premium on all 10 aircraft in the fleet is expected to cost N180m.

The Presidency had revealed that the PAF maintains 10 aircraft since the inception of the Buhari regime in May 2015. Punch