THE number one and two citizens of the federal republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, will both spend N2,801,981,868 on cars, travel and feeding cost, details of the proposed 2019 budget released by the Budget Office of the Federation has revealed.

President Muhammadu Buhari plans to spend N1.001 billion on travels in 2019. A breakdown of the budget item shows that N751.3 million is for international travels and N250.02 million for local travels.

On his own part, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will spend about N301.04 million on general travel — detailed as N217.06 million for international travel and N83.97 million for local travel.

The budget details also show that the president and his vice will spend another N843 million on purchase and maintenance of motor vehicles/transport equipment and purchase of hello spares/maintenance.

A breakdown of the item reveals that the State House headquarters will spend N825,948,233 on maintenance of motor vehicle/transport equipment—N165,072,123; Phased replacement of vehicles, spares and tyres in the presidential, CVU, security/police escort and State House operational fleets —N607,102,110; Purchase of tyres for bulletproof vehicles, plain Toyota cars, CCU Vehicles, platform trucks, land cruiser and Prado jeeps, Hilux, Peugeot 607, ambulances and other utility and operational vehicles —N53,774,000. The vice president will also spend N17.05 million on of purchase of hello spares/maintenance.

The budgeted feeding allowance for President and his vice have remained same compared to the 2018 budget.

The line item “foodstuff and catering material supplies,” shows that the president and vice-president got N149 million, this is N18 million lesser than the N167 million which was budgeted 2017. The President got N98.3 million while the Vice got N50.8 million.

The budget also showed that the State House headquarters will spend N145 million as allocation for “foodstuff and catering material supplies,” N22 million lesser than the N123 million allocated in the 2017 budget.

Also in the budget is another separate sum of N43.9 million for “refreshment and meal” for president and his vice. The sum of N25.6 million goes to the President’s office while the sum of N18.3 million the Vice President’s office.

The State House headquarter also gets a separate N135.6 million for the same purpose, the same amount that was earmarked in the 2018 budget.

President Buhari, on December 19 presented a budget proposal of N8.83 trillion for 2019, making a strong case in support of the petroleum subsidy.

Delivering his speech amidst cheers and jeers by supporters and opponents, Buhari explained that the 2019 budget is divided into N4.04 trillion recurrent expenditure, N2.031 trillion capital expenditure, N492.36 billion statutory transfer, and N120 billion sinking fund. The sum of N2.14 trillion was also allocated for debt servicing, according to Buhari.

The Budget was premised on a crude oil benchmark of $60 dollars per barrel, an expected crude oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day (including condensates), an exchange rate of N305 for one US dollar, estimated GDP growth of 3.01 per cent, and an expected inflation rate of 9.98 per cent.