President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo will spend N1.3bn on their numerous trips in 2018.

The figure was part of the details of the 2018 Appropriation Bill  the President presented to the National Assembly last week.

According to the details, the two Nigerian leaders will spend N968.4m on their foreign trips during the year, while their local trips will gulp N334m.

Further breakdown of the budget shows that Buhari alone will spend N751m on his foreign trips and N250m on local trips.

Osinbajo will spend N217m and N84m on his foreign and local trips respectively. These figures do not include N182m allocated for both local and foreign trips in the budget of the State House Headquarters.

In 2017, the President spent N739m on foreign trips, while his deputy expended N218m for the same purpose.

Also during the year, Buhari spent N238m on local trips. Local trips for Osinbajo cost N88m. Both leaders spent N1.28bn on foreign and local trips during the year.

Further scrutiny of the 2018 budget shows that Buhari and Osinbajo will jointly spend N149m on foodstuffs/catering materials during the year.

While Buhari will spend N98m under the category, Osinbajo will spend N50m. This is apart from the N25.7m Buhari will be spending on refreshments and meals.

Apart from the figure also, Osinbajo will be spending N18m on refreshments and meals as well as N2.4m on cooking gas. For the Vice-President, N17.4m will be spent to purchase household and kitchen items that include crested plates, tea cups, cutleries and serving basin.

For the State House Headquarters, electricity charges will gulp N275m; telephone charges will cost N24m; while N67m will be spent on internet charges.

N66m was budgeted for water rates while sewage charges will gulp N45m.

The government will also spend N24m to purchase sporting equipment for State House Sports Club.

Also, the Federal Government has budgeted N1.03bn for the State House Medical Centre in 2018. The budget consists of N698.7m capital expenditure, N331.7m for recurrent expenditure and N331.7m for overheads.

Purchase of health and medical equipment will gulp N408m, while N208m will be spent on drug and medical supplies.

Besides, the Federal Government will spend N11m on local travel and transportation at the medical centre. Provision of fixed assets for the medical centre will cost N209m.

Source- THE PUNCH