FG to buy N45m carpet, N63m seats for National Theatre

 The Federal Government is planning to spend N45m on the laying of carpet of Cinema Halls I and II of the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, in 2017.

This is part of the whopping N736.3m total allocation to the national edifice in the 2017 Appropriation Bill currently before the National Assembly.

According to the details of the document obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the Federal Government has also planned to spend N63m on the installation of modern theatre seats for the Cinema Halls I and II.

The government, through the Ministry of Information and Culture, will also spend N20m on the supply and rehabilitation of the male and female toilets in the main exhibition hall.

Further details of the National Theatre’s budget showed that the rehabilitation of water and civil works of the reservoir would gulp N28m; replacement of old electrical materials with new ones would cost N32m while the supply of mahogany for stage construction and rehabilitation of motorised curtain rail would gulp N25m.

The National Theatre’s total personnel cost for the year is put at N360.55m; total overheads is N163m; total recurrent is N523.6m; while total capital is estimated at N212.7m.

The National Orientation Agency will spend about N32m on the Change-Begins-With-Me campaign of the Federal Government in 2017 the year.

This is just one out of the numerous enlightenment programmes planned by the agency for the year.

The Change-Begins-With-Me campaign is divided into two segments in the agency’s budget.

The first segment, which is campaign on conservation and protection of public assets and infrastructure, will get N16m while N15.9m is budgeted for the national action against drug addiction, political thuggery, kidnapping, radicalisation and violent extremism.

The agency also plans to spend N31.4m on what it called promoting the tenets of social justice and alternative dispute resolution; and N16m on the acquisition of office building in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.

The NOA will also spend N134m on the completion of state directorate offices in Osun, Kogi and Nasarawa while it will spend N50.5m on “building a people of peace.”

Others expenses to be made by the agency during the year include N28.6m on national security awareness sensitisation campaign; N78m on purchase of office equipment; and N9.4m for grassroots public enlightenment sessions in the wards and local government areas on the meaning, application and benefits of the Freedom of Information Act 2011.

Others are ‘Do the right thing’, a campus-focussed programme in a tertiary institution in one state in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country – N23.7m and campaign against destruction of public assets – N10.5m.