The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has, in so many words, described the governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, as a liar.
The governor of Kaduna state, El Rufai had earlier claimed that the previous administration led by Goodluck Jonathan, spent up to N64 billion for Independence celebrations between 2011 and 2014, following the decision of the Buhari led government to spend N70 million for celebrations on October 1, 2015.
On his Facebook page, El Rufai gave the breakdown of the outrageous expenditures as follows: N13 billion spent in 2011; N15 billion in 2012; N14 billion in 2013, and N22 billion in 2014.
Abubakar’s Suleiman, who is the immediate past Minister of National Planning, subsequently rubbished El Rufai’s claims, describing them as “blatant tissues of lies to discredit the administration.”
Suleiman revealed in a strongly worded reply that the total expenditure by Jonathan on independence anniversary celebrations between 2012 and 2014 never went beyond N333 million.
Until now, El Rufai’s claims has remained unchallenged with facts nay evidence, and generating a few unconfirmed rejoinders in the process.
The SGF, in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by BudgIT Nigeria, has now confirmed that El-Rufai cooked-up the figures he quoted.
In a response to the October 2, 2015 request by the Lagos-based online accountability and public finance platform, the Office of the SGF revealed that governments (past and present) spent a total of N2.24 billion on the Independence Day Celebration/Centenary Actual Expenditure from 2010-2015.
The director (Finance & Accounts) in the Permanent Secretary’s Office, Mohammed Garba, said N1.7 billion was spent on the country’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2010, while no money was released for the celebration in 2011.
Also, about N107.6 million was spent in 2012; N45million for 2013 and N180 million for 2014.
The report also included the N70 million spent by the Buhari administration for the celebration in October.
Garba further explained that although former President Jonathan had approved N223.8 million for the 2013 celebrations, only N45 million was actually released.
He also revealed that about N138.14 million was also released by government for the Centenary honours awards.
