As President Muhammadu Buhari‘s eight-year term concludes in two days, the presidency declared that departing ministers will not be permitted to leave with their official vehicles.
The statement comes just before the handover to President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, scheduled for May 29.
Instead, ministers will receive what the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission dictate as their severance benefits.
It was also stated that both Buhari and Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, will leave behind their armoured luxury vehicles, which will be inherited by their successors, Tinubu and his deputy, Kashim Shettima, respectively.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu provided these clarifications during an interview with Punch.
The move is seen as a break from the norm of government officials departing office with their official vehicles, a practice observed across the country at all levels of government.
Shehu in the interview reaffirmed that Buhari, Osinbajo, and the ministers would not be leaving office with the vehicles assigned to them.
He clarified, “As we speak today, nobody is entitled to official cars. What they use are project vehicles. These ones can only be boarded and sold after four years of usage. That is when the book value has been exhausted.”
The presidential spokesperson noted that the law already outlines the provision for former presidents and their deputies to obtain a certain number of vehicles at specific intervals.
Therefore, they do not have to take government vehicles upon leaving office.
Shehu emphasized, “Former Heads of State have a prescribed number of vehicles they are entitled to, which may be changed after a certain number of years. And the President has kept to this by supplying that number of vehicles to all former Heads of State each time it is due. The President will not place himself above the others; that I can assure you.”
