Outcry over Tinubu’s yacht is hot air, it’s already delivered but not paid for
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Public uproar over the N5 billion Bola Tinubu penciled down for a Presidential Yacht in the 2023 supplementary budget may be mere hot air because the vessel has already been signed, sealed, and delivered, as disclosed by Senate Chief Whip Ali Ndume.
Ndume said the luxury ship has not been paid for, however, which was why provision was made for it in the budget.
Since the yacht has already been delivered – and if the manufacturers refuse to take it back since it was made to order – Tinubu may still muscle his way through the treasury to pay for it, now or later.
Tinubu is as lawless as any other Nigerian President in history, if not worse.
The President presented the entire N2.176 trillion budget to the National Assembly (NASS) on October 31. The Senate passed it without modification, but the House of Representatives removed the yacht and put the N5 billion to the N5 billion voted for students’ loan to raise that budget to N10 billion.
Although the harmonised budget report presented by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman, Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun West) was jointly signed by himself and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Abubakar Bichi, the House refused to include the N5 billion yacht allocation.
Ndume explained on Arise News at the weekend the yacht has been “signed, delivered, but not paid for,” which was why it was included in the supplementary budget.
He added: “The Navy provided explanations, especially clarifying that this is not a new item, so to say, because I know that the President, by his nature, is not a luxurious person. So, I don’t think we will go for that.
“But anyway, we felt at this time, that N5 billion for that is inadequate, and in the House of Reps, they felt different, and they felt that that should completely be removed and added to the N5 billion that is provided for the students’ loan, which is one of the critical things in the supplementary budget.
“And as you rightly said, we are harmonising on that.
“The Navy also believes that that is not their area of priority, but the thing is because you have a committed cause, and it has foreign exchange implications. They felt that the commitment has to be met, especially when I understand that the presidential yacht has already been delivered.”
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Lawmakers chose SUVs because of bad roads, Ndume explains
Ndume also explained lawmakers are not being given official SUVs because they want to drive luxury cars but because of bad roads across the country, per Arise TV.
He insisted it is not a new thing to buy official vehicles for people in government.
“I’m hearing that the cost of each one is N160 million, I don’t know about that cost I’m not in the [NASS] management. All I care about is if the vehicles are made available for us to use, that’s it.
“But I agree that at this time, the cost of products, generally, not only SUV vehicles, is way high. But the question is, is it proper to have vehicles for each Senator or member of House of Reps to use? The answer, I believe, is yes.
The reason the Senate chose to go for SUVs is due to the bad roads. You cannot travel on Nigerian roads now with small vehicles that are not high lifted because most of our roads are bad, that is the truth of it.
“I want to tell you that most of us are not really, really worried about the issue of what type of vehicle, it’s the vehicle that will enable us to effectively carry out our oversight responsibility, which is very important and constitutional, it is not that senators want luxurious cars to themselves.
On why the lawmakers went for foreign cars rather than Nigerian cars, Ndume said: “You know that they don’t manufacture any vehicles in Nigeria, they only assemble.
“I prefer made-in-Nigeria goods. When we were in the House of Reps, Senators were to buy [Toyota] Camry and the House of Reps were to buy their vehicles. When they chose another car, I argued that time that we must patronise Nigerian-assembled [cars].
“That time, ASD was assembling Peugeot 406 in Kaduna and that was why we went for it. So, it’s not like we’re completely insensitive to the feelings of Nigerians.”