Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secrets Reporters
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has identified publicity and advertisement as two of his key projects that will cost the oil-rich nation nearly a billion Naira in the coming year.
An inventory of the 2024 appropriations bill revealed that the former Lagos State’s number one man, who rose to power on the mantra of ‘Renewed Hope,’ has cemented plans to spend a whopping sum of Eight hundred and eight million, one hundred and thirteen thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven Naira (N808,113,357.00) on Publicity and Advertisement.
Recall that the flamboyant bill, Tinubu’s first full-scale budget, was presented to the national assembly on Wednesday, November 29th, 2023.
In a startling revelation, findings by this onine media revealed an astronomical increase from what was budgeted for advertisement and publicity in 2023 by former President Muhammadu Buahri.
Digging into the 2023 appropriations bill, SecretsReporters gathered that Buhari, who ruled Nigeria under the platform of the All Progress Congress, budgeted the sum of Seven million, one hundred and thirteen thousand, and three hundred and fifty seven Naira (N7,113,357.00) for publicity and advertisement.
Mr Tinubu’s government increased the budget for Publicity and Advertisement by more than 11000%, having raised it from N7,113,357.00 in 23 to N808,113,357.00 in 2024.
The President, who clinched the nation’s most juicy position earlier this year in a stiff election, reeled out this flamboyant budget despite wailing that he inherited an empty treasury from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who led the nation into two infamous recessions during his inglorious eight-year reign.
Recall that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, had during the Chief of Defence Intelligence Annual Conference 2023 in Abuja disclosed that the financial distress currently plaguing the country is a direct result of President Bola Tinubu’s administration inheriting an empty treasury upon assuming power.
Ribadu revealed, “We’re facing budgetary constraints. It is okay for me to tell you. Fine, it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation, literally a bankrupt country, no money, to a point where we can say that all the money we’re getting now, we’re paying back what was taken. It is serious!”
