The federal government’s planned renovation of Nigeria’s National Assembly Complex at a whopping cost of N27 billion has continued to generate a lot of negative reactions.
The structure, which is located in the Three Arms Zones of the Federal Capital Territory, houses both the upper and lower legislative arms of the National Assembly.
ITB Nigeria constructed the structure for N7 billion in 1999, but the federal government is now set to renovate it for N27 billion.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) which is the implementing agency had originally requested N37 billion for the renovation exercise in its 2020 budget.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the said sum for the renovation, the federal government recently slashed the amount from N37 billion to N27 billion in the country’s revised 2020 budget due to the drop in the price of crude oil and a fall in its projected revenue.
The planned renovation received renewed criticisms after it was discovered that the federal government had cut the money allocated to the project by only N10 billion, while it slashed the allocation to primary health care from N44.4 billion to N25.5 billion. Allocation to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) was equally slashed from N111.7 billion to N51.1 billion.
Details of what the renovation would consist have not been made public, but when the structure was built in 1999, some of its electrical and mechanical installations include Central air-conditioning system, CCTV, access control system, fire detection and fire fighting system. The structure sits on 40,000 m² area of land.
