Supplementary Budget: Tinubu Disowns N5bn Presidential Yacht Request

BY EDMOND ODOK – Amid the outrage trailing certain details contained in the N2.1 trillion supplementary budget submitted to the National Assembly (NASS), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu never made any request for a presidential yacht, according to the Presidency.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, who clarified issues concerning the Presidential yacht listed under the Nigerian Navy’s proposed capital expenditure of N42.3 billion, said the President certainly does not need one to perform the functions of his office.

Reacting to the knocks currently trailing the proposed budgetary allocation for the yacht, Ajayi said; “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 N6 billion for vehicles to 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 expenditure should be accommodated now, considering the economic situation of the country. I must readily admit that the one reason our budgeting system has been a 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 then, 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 will be built with N300 million.

“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. When the State House makes provision for vehicles, it is reported as if it is the President who will use all the vehicles or eat all the food when a provision is made for food and catering services.”

The Presidential aide’s statement further stated thus; “We have had such inaccurate reporting in the past. A President and Vice President cannot, for any reason, spend N20 million naira to eat in a year if it is about the food they will eat as first and second families.

“How much food can a person really eat? Yet, we will read headlines that Tinubu, Buhari, Jonathan, or whoever the President is wants to spend N5 billion on food and catering in a year when in actual fact such budgetary provisions are made to accommodate many state events, meetings, hosting of VIPs, foreign dignitaries, and even visits by other Heads of State, and bilateral and multilateral meetings that the State House will deal with in a given year.”

Ajayi spoke against the backdrop of expenditure outlined in the N2.176trillion 2023 supplementary budget for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) indicating that the federal government had proposed allocation of N5.095 billion for the acquisition of a presidential yacht and N28 billion for other needs in the State House.