Former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, has revealed that former President Muhammadu Buhari was stunned upon learning of a proposed N10 million food budget for the State House.
Shehu made this known in his memoir, According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesperson’s Experience, launched on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, when Buhari assumed office in 2015, he was briefed that the food budget, which catered for the president, vice president, guest houses, and official banquets, needed to be raised to N10 million.
Shehu said the former president immediately rejected the proposal.
“When they told him N10 million was needed, he screamed and demanded it be reduced. ‘Look at my table, what do I eat? How much does it cost?’” Shehu quoted Buhari as saying.
He added that Buhari maintained a frugal and health-conscious diet throughout his tenure.
“Most of the things he ate were very basic foods commonly consumed by the lower strata of Nigerian society — tuwo, pap, akara, beans, wheat, plenty of salads, poultry, and mutton,” Shehu wrote.
