Buhari Approves Construction Of ₦21 Billion 14-Bed Space Presidential Clinic

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the construction and equipping of a 14-bed space presidential clinic at a cost of N21 billion.

The Permanent Secretary, State House, Umar Tijjani, made the disclosure to members of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs while presenting the 2022 budget for consideration.

He said that Julius Berger Nigeria (JBN) will construct the VIP clinic and the physical construction will start on November 1, with a commissioning date set for December 31, 2022.

The permanent secretary explained that the presidential clinic was ‘conceived in 2012 by the previous administration and the brief was produced. It was estimated about N21 billion and facility contains 14-bed space without a total area of 2,700 square meters, there will be an underground and the first floor.

Other facilities, according to Tijani, will include two operating theatres, two executive suites and a six-bed isolation area. He said that there will be a laboratory, healing garden, pharmacy and X-ray facility.

Most of the preliminary work has been concluded,’ he said. ‘Mr President has approved the project. We have gone Bureau of Public Procurement to get Certificate of No Objection.’

He told the committee that JBN was chosen as the contractor, having built the State House and having been maintaining it since 1990.

He said the clinic will be opened to other Africa countries for medical treatment. A members of the Committee, Senator Nicolas Tofowomo, however expressed dissatisfaction with the failure of the Permanent Secretary of State House to show the committee a pictoral rendering of the planned hospital.

Nevertheless, other members of the Committee led by the Chairman, Senator Danjuma La’ah, commended the initiative of the Federal Government for the construction and equipping of the presidential wing of the State House clinic.