The Presidency has lashed out at the Labour Party (LP) candidate in this year’s presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, for attempting to whip up public sentiments against the Bola Tinubu administration over the budgetary provision for the completion of the Vice President’s residence.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) had, in the 2024 budget proposal, earmarked N15.5 billion for the renovation of the Vice President’s official residence, a development that Obi, in a couple of tweets on his verified X handle, described as shocking and disheartening.
Reacting to Obi’s comments in a statement yesterday in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, the Presidency said the quest to give the Vice President a befitting residence started in 2007.
It said this was with similar targets for the residences of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“Giving the reactions and invocations generated by Mr. Obi’s comments, however, it is necessary, for the sake of history, to clarify that the proposed plan for the construction of the Vice President’s official residence, for which a budgetary allocation was made in the 2024 budget by the FCT Administration, was awarded by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. It was not originated by the present administration. This, Mr. Obi knows but chose to play dumb, all in a bid to inflame a targeted group of Nigerians and, as usual, score cheap political goals, accolades and praises.
“The project, which was reinitiated in 2010 and was funded by the Jonathan administration, was abandoned. Appalled by the sorry state of the uncompleted building that has now been overtaken by weeds and reptiles over a decade after construction started about 13 years ago, the current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, felt it would be a waste to allow such a project started with public funds to continue to lie fallow. Thus, in his wisdom and without the prompting of the Vice President, decided to resuscitate the building.
“We invite more cerebral Nigerians to crosscheck properly, which should be considered a waste between Obi’s tantrums because the project has attracted government’s attention, given the decision by the current administration to complete vital abandoned projects. What is more wasteful and reckless than abandoning an edifice to rot and depreciate, despite the amount that has been sunk into it over the years?
“We recall that while Obi was governor of Anambra State, he had insisted that contractors should return to site to complete abandoned projects, which he then never considered as a waste. If he did this while deploying ‘entailed wisdom and leadership’ to Ndi Anambra as a governor, the question now is: why should the same action by the Tinubu administration now be termed blue murder?
“Nigerians know that the issue of a befitting residence for the Vice President had been a recurring decimal in the budget of Nigeria since 2007. It did not start today; same for the residences of the Senate President and the House Speaker.
“The array of abandoned Federal Government projects littered all over the country is a national embarrassment that the current administration has taken a bold step to save the country from. This is why it has made it a priority that all abandoned projects must be completed before new ones are initiated, save for some on exceptional basis, either because of the need for strategic alignment or economic significance.”
