Mohammed Ali Ndume, the senator from Borno South, has come forward to clarify the issue surrounding the controversial N5 billion presidential yacht, News About Nigeria reports.
The Chief Whip of the Senate provided these clarifications during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show today, where he discussed the supplementary budget.
Ndume stated that the presidential yacht had been ordered and delivered but had not been paid for before the citizens raised their concerns.
He added that the Senate had approved the necessary payment for the student loan budget a long time ago.
He said, We queried the amount budgeted for the yacht, but it was signed for a dollar rate, and the new rate isn’t favourable. The budget was predicated for about N435, and now it is over N800.”
Furthermore, the Senator noted that this was not a new budget. He also explained that the yacht deal had been negotiated, signed, and delivered but had not yet been paid for.
Regarding the N160 million allocated for each lawmaker in the National Assembly to purchase Land Cruiser SUVs, he mentioned that there is nothing wrong with the government procuring vehicles for official duties.
He pointed out that the cost of the vehicles had been affected by the high dollar rate and that the lawmakers required these vehicles for their functions.
“I prefer Nigerian-made products, but the Nigerian car companies are only buying the vehicle parts and assembling them here.”
The Chief Whip also stressed that the reason for the SUVs is that these are the only vehicles capable of performing their functions.
Many Nigerians rejected some of the expenditures proposed in the 2023 supplementary budget submitted by the President to the National Assembly for approval, including a proposal to spend N5.095 billion on a presidential yacht.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, clarified, “What was named as a presidential yacht in the budget is an operational Naval boat with specialised security gadgets suitable for high profile operational inspection and not for the use of the President.”
