By Kamil Opeyemi
The Presidency has on Thursday released more facts over the presidential yacht it budged for in its N2.17trillion supplimentary budget proposal sent to the National Assembly.
Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, said the response followed what he called “public reactions over the provision for what is termed presidential yacht and other line items in the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation presented to the National Assembly.”
NPO Reports that the House of Representatives dismissed the proposal while approving the president’s proposal.
The lower chamber of the National Assembly scrapped the budget for the yacht and added its money, N5bn to the N5.5bn initially proposed by the Presidency for students loans. Saying it is important to make some clarifications, Onanuga said the presidency needed to clear the air that President Bola Tinubu’s administration respects the views of Nigerians on all matters of public concern.
“We thus consider it very imperative to clear any misconception and misunderstanding of the issues.”
He stated that 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 presidential yacht by way of nomenclature because of the high level security features.
“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.”
He added that 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 N200 billion out which N62 billion was approved by the President.
“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.”
He said Tinubu is a leader who understands the economic challenges being faced by the masses adding that his administration is working very hard to confront the nation’s challenges.