Dodan Barracks, Nigeria's former seat of power is undergoing renovations by the Federal Government, with plans to complete works by May 29, 2024, AnchorNews gathered.

According to some government officials involved in the renovation project, the work was necessitated as a result of perennial floods threatening the facility and consequent deterioration of critical components.

The Federal Executive Council had on October 30, 2023 approved N4bn to renovate the official residence in Lagos and another N3bn to refurbish the Vice President’s official quarters in the state as part of a N2.18tn supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year proposed by President Bola Tinubu.

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The budget which covers additional spending in defense, works, and welfare packages such as wage awards and conditional cash transfers agreed with the Organised Labour earlier that month, was assented to by Tinubu on New Year’s Day of 2024, to run until March 31. Meanwhile, the Senate on March 19, extended its implementation period to June 30.

Confirming the news, a senior government official who pleaded anonymity told AnchorNews correspondent that  “renovation works have begun as approved by the budget. The rehabilitation was necessary because of the sorry state of the structure.

“Last rainy season, a major part of the building was almost taken away by floods. So we have to protect it from erosion and floods.

“We will also repair broken items, renew the furniture and make it a functioning State House Liaison Office,” he said.

Dodan Barracks, which was Nigeria’s former military headquarters located in Ikoyi, Lagos. It is the seat of power from 1966 until 1991, when the Babangida administration made Abuja Nigeria’s administrative capital.

Despite the fact that its establishment dates back to the British colonial era when it served as a military installation, the barracks rose to prominence in Nigeria’s post-independence history, housing the office and residence of military heads of state, including Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the Supreme Military headquarters during the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970).

United States President, Jimmy Carter, on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa from March 31 – April 3, 1978 was also accommodated in Dodan Barracks.

When the former Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida relocated the seat of power to Abuja in December 1991, Dodan Barracks became a Liaison Office in Lagos, attending to presidential liaison in the South-West geopolitical zone.

Top government functionaries visiting or passing through Lagos also received protocol and logistical support services from the barracks.

In April 2022, then-Permanent Secretary of the State House, Tijjani Umar, while having an on-the-spot assessment of the condition of the facilities, revealed plans to give the former seat of power a facelift by rehabilitating it. Umar said, “The collection and preservation of archival materials for posterity in the seat of government would receive more attention.”

Umar emphasized that the rehabilitation would entail upgrading its library facilities and historical artefacts and opening the edifice to researchers and academics.

“We want to keep this place active, alive and functional, as well as make the working environment more conducive for the staff.

“We cannot fix the entire structure in one day, but we can begin somewhere and see it to completion,” Umar had said.

Another government official who did not want to be named hinted that the facility may be used by President Bola Tinubu subsequently, as he anticipate that rehabilitation works will be completed by May 29, 2024.