By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The House of Representatives, on Thursday, refused to grant approval for the N5.095bn budgetary allocation for a presidential yacht, which is contained in the N2.176trn supplementary budget for the 2023 financial year transmitted to it on Tuesday by President Bola Tinubu.
While passing the supplementary budget, the Parliament moved the sum proposed for the yacht to the student loan, bringing the total sum for the scheme to N10bn up from the initial N5.5bn.
The House also increased the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Defence from the initial allocation of N476bn to N546bn.
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*Reallocates money to student loan
While interacting with a parliamentary correspondent after plenary, the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi, said, “As far as we are concerned, we don’t have that presidential yacht anymore. We have increased the student loan. If you recall, the student loan was N5bn in the budget but we have increased it to N10bn.”
Bichi, also disclosed that the four monthly wage award of N210bn for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the president for implementation
He, therefore, promised adequate legislative oversight to ensure 100 per cent implementation.
He further disclosed that the sum of N100bn was retained for the Federal Capital Territory as requested.
The presidential yacht, which was listed under the Nigerian Navy’s proposed capital expenditure of N42.3bn, in the supplementary appropriation, has generated negative reactions from Nigerians, prompting the presidency to respond to the barrage of criticism that had trailed the planned purchase of the presidential yacht.
A presidential spokesman, Mr Tope Ajayi, said President Bola Tinubu did not ask for a yacht.
According to Ajayi, “The trending issues on Social Media since yesterday are two items in the 2023 supplementary budget. One is the provision for a presidential yacht in the supplementary budget by the Navy, and the other is over N6bn for vehicles for the State House.
“It is important to state clearly that President Bola Tinubu didn’t ask for a presidential yacht, and I doubt he needs one to perform the functions of his office.
“From what I know, the request for a yacht, however, it is named or couched in the budget, is from the Navy, and they must have operational reasons for why it is required.
“The budget office should be in a position to also explain to the public why such expenditures should be accommodated now, considering the economic situation of the country. I must readily admit that the one reason our budgeting system has been the subject of public attack is the very simplistic way some of the line items are described by civil servants who prepare the budget.
“Examples abound. Sometimes in 2016, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project of the Ministry of Solid Minerals worth over N300m was captured in that year’s budget as a “website”. Naturally, it generated a massive controversy as people, rightly, asked to know the type of website that would be built with N300m.”
The presidential aide further noted, “It is important to say that journalism should enrich public enlightenment and not create an atmosphere of siege. It is poor reporting to always reduce State House budgetary provisions to the President and Vice President.”
