Reps block controversial proposal to buy presidential yacht for ₦5 billion

The House of Representatives has thrown out the controversial presidential yacht from the 2023 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 on Thursday, November 2, 2023. 

He 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 ₦5 billion in the budget but we have increased it to ₦10 billion."

There’s been an outcry over the controversial presidential yacht since the details of the ₦2.1 trillion supplementary budget submitted to the national assembly were published.

Meanwhile, the presidency has said that President Bola Tinubu did not ask for a presidential yacht.

In its reaction to the criticisms that trailed the issue, Tope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in a piece published on Thursday said the President did not ask for a yacht because he didn't need one to perform his function.

He wrote, "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 ₦6 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."