By Christian George
A presidential spokesman, Tope Ajayi, said that the Navy has “operational reasons” for the proposed presidential yacht.
The president’s spokesman cleared the air amidst social media news of President Bola Tinubu requesting a yacht worth about N5.09 billion.
He stressed that Tinubu did not request the yacht.
He, however, explained that the yacht was listed under the Nigerian Navy’s proposed capital expenditure of N42.3 billion.
According to the budget, N5.09 billion was allocated for the yacht, N2.9 billion for sport utility vehicles for the Presidential Villa, and another N2.9 billion for replacing operational vehicles for the presidency.
He clarified that Tinubu didn’t need a yacht to aid him in performing his duties effectively, adding that the navy has its reason for it, according to Vanguard.
He 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 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 N300 million 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 N300 million,” he said.
