Presidency disowns proposed ₦5bn yacht, says request was made by Navy

The presidency has clarified that the proposed ₦5 billion yacht listed in the 2023 supplementary budget is a naval boat and not for President Bola Tinubu's usage as speculated.

The controversy started when a line item in the supplementary budget showed a plan by the government to purchase a 'presidential yacht' valued at ₦5bn. This gave Nigerians the impression that Tinubu was planning to add another expensive item to the presidential fleet.

Alarmed by such a proposal, many concerned citizens roundly rebuked the government over what they termed a lack of sensitivity to the harsh economic situation Nigerians are currently going through.

But in a statement on Thursday, November 2, 2023, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said contrary to popular belief, the yacht is a naval vessel.

“What was named as Presidential Yacht in the budget is an Operational Naval boat with specialized security gadgets suitable for high profile operational inspection and not for the use of the President. It is called a presidential yacht by way of nomenclature because of the high-level security features,” Onanuga said in a statement on his X account.

“The Facts on the Naval Boat in 2023 Supplementary Budget”. 

“The Naval boat was ordered by the navy under the previous administration. President Tinubu has consistently said that government is a continuum as he inherited both assets and liabilities of past administrations.

“The payment request for the boat was part of the committed obligation submitted by the office of the Chief of Naval Staff to the Ministry of Defence. The total of the submitted requests was in excess of ₦200 billion out of which ₦62 billion was approved by the President,” he explained.

The presidential aide also reiterated Tinubu's commitment to improve Nigeria's maritime security for greater economic output.

“President Tinubu is focused on securing our country and territorial waters. The Federal Government under his leadership is investing more resources to enhance greater economic output from our oil and gas, marine and blue economy,” Onanuga added.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the House of Representatives removed the controversial proposal to purchase a presidential yacht from the supplementary budget.

The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Abubakar Bichi, said the budget for the yacht has been transferred to student loans.

Bichi disclosed this while addressing journalists after the passage of the supplementary budget, saying As far as we are concerned, we don’t have that presidential yacht anymore. We have increased the student loan.”