Tinubu budgets N4b for helipad among other several capital projects
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Out of the N49.7 trillion proposed budget for 2025 that Bola Tinubu presented to the National Assembly (NASS) on December 18, the Ministry of Works will spend N1.057,101,549,307 on construction and rehabilitation projects.
The President plans for the ministry to spend N4 billion to construct a presidential helipad and a jetty in Lagos, as well as other funds for federal roads across the country, more than 100 of which existing ones are dilapidated and hardly motorable due poor maintenance.
The budget also contains provisions for billions of naira to buy presidential SUVs despite the fact Aso Rock bought luxury Escalades this year, apart from a second hand presidential jet that cost $100 million and another $50 million to retrofit.
There was national outrage in 2023 when news broke of a N5.2 billion vote to fix a presidential yacht, which apparently now necessitates building in the 2025 budget a presidential jetty in Lagos (Tinubu’s home city where he spends holidays), away from landlocked Abuja.
Information Minister Mohammed Idris publicly confirmed in November 2023 that the presidential yacht, for which N5.2 billion was provided in the 2023 supplementary budget, was delivered in June 2023.
In the 2025 budget, Tinubu plans for the Works Ministry to spend N340 million on public schools, N289.4 billion (roads), and N2.48 billion (office buildings).
The ministry will spend N10 billion for the dualisation of the Kano-Maiduguri Road (Section V) linking Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Yobe, and Borno, N6 billion for the reconstruction of Abuja-Lokoja Road, and N12 billion for the construction of section one of the Kano-Wudil-Shuarin Road, per reporting by The Guardian.
And additional N34 billion is planned to be spent for the dualisation of Kano-Katsina Road, N23 billion for the rehabilitation of sections three and four of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, and N75 billion for phase one of the Kano-Katsina Road dualisation.
Up to N1 billion is allocated for asphalting the David Umahi Federal Medical University Road, N2 billion for Lekki Axial Road counterpart funding, and he Bauchi-Jigawa border road gets N15 billion for rehabilitation of failed sections.
The ministry has set aside N5 billion for judgment debt, N5 billion (legal fees), N280 million (maintaining seven power generators, and N1.7 billion (office building renovation).
Other allocations include N77.1 billion for public-private partnership (PPP) due diligence and negotiations, N15 billion (independent engineer for the Abuja-Makurdi Road), N10.25 billion (pilot HDMI corridor engineer), and N10 million (engagement of media consultants and stakeholders).
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