Senate and Reps to reconcile budget figures after raising students’ loan budget to N10b
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bola Tinubu’s request for a N5 billion yacht in the supplementary budget passed by the Senate has been rejected by the House of Representatives and the money added to the N5 billion voted for students’ loan to raise that purse to N10 billion.
The President spin doctors’ explanation the yacht was requested by the Navy did not persuade outraged Nigerians gasping for economic survival, and the public criticism influenced the Lower House to do the needful, a rare move.
Tinubu himself listed the item as “Presidential Yacht” in the budget, exposing the lie in the attempt to change the narrative.
The harmonisation committee of both Chambers will have to reconvene and agree to the change and Tinubu will have to assent to the budget as passed, for the removal of the yacht to be come law.
On the whole, the National Assembly (NASS) on Thursday approved the N2.18 trillion 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Bill forwarded to it on Tuesday by Tinubu.
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 buy into the N5 billion yacht allocation.
“As far as we are concerned, we don’t need that anymore. We have increased the student loan,” Bichi explained.
“If you can recall, the student loan was N5 billion in the budget, but now we have increased it to N10 billion so that our students will be able to access that facility in order for them to be able to go to school.”
He said the request for the yacht was part of the committed obligation submitted by the office of the Chief of Naval Staff to the Ministry of Defence and the Presidency, adding “the total of the submitted requests was in excess of N200 billion out which N62 billion was approved by the President.”
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Figures passed by the Senate
The Senate version of the Appropriation Bill allocated N18 billion for statutory transfers, N1 trillion recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and N1.12 trillion for development fund for capital expenditure, per The PUNCH.
The House equally approved N18 billion for statutory transfers, N992.8 billion recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, and N1.165 trillion for contribution to the Development Fund for capital expenditure.
The budget includes N13.5 billion for the renovation of Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima’s residences.
- N4 billion – residential quarters for the President in Abuja
- N4 billion – renovation of Dodan Barracks, the official residence of Mr President in Lagos
- N2.5 billion – renovation of Aguda House (VP’s residence)
Also included in the budget passed by the Senate are:
- N5.09 billion – Presidential Yacht, listed under the Navy’s capital expenditure of a total N42.3 billion,
- N2.9 billion – Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) for the Presidential Villa
- N2.9billion – replacement of operational vehicles for the Presidency
- N12.5 billion – Presidential Air Fleet
The Presidential Air Fleet includes Boeing Business Jet (Boeing 737-800 or NAF 001), one Gulfstream 550, one Gulfstream V (Gulfstream 500), two Falcons 7X, one Hawker Sidley 4000, two AgustaWestland AW 139 helicopters and two AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopters.
- N1.5 billion – Office of the First Lady (although the office is not recognised in the Constitution)
Figures passed by the House
In the House of Representatives, the budget report titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N2,176,791,286,033 for the year ending 31 December 2023’, was laid by Abubakar Bichi (Bichi Federal Constituency, Kano).
Items in the total N2.176 trillion include:
- N18 billion – statutory transfers
- N992.8 billion – recurrent (non-debt)
- N1.165 trillion – contribution to the Development Fund for capital expenditure
- N546 billion (raised from N476 billion) – Defence
- N210 billion – four-month wage award for federal workers
Bichi pledged adequate legislative oversight to ensure 100 per cent implementation.
He added: “Today, our committee has submitted our report, and the House after careful consideration, approved our submission, the breakdown is as follows:
“As you know, the budget is about N2.177 trillion and the Ministry of Defence has N456billion, but currently, they have the largest share because we know how important our security is.
“And as you are aware, we interacted with them yesterday (Wednesday) and they requested additional funding so that they can continue their work. So, we have increased their budget from N476 to N546 billion.
“Then, police formation and commands: we gave them N50 billion while the FCT has about N100 billion. You know FCT is very important to us because we want to make sure FCT can compete with any city in the world.
“Office of the National Security Adviser: We know how important that office is. Initially, the allocation was N27 billion but currently, we have increased their budget to N50 billion.
“The initial budget for the State House was N28 billion and we still maintain their figure at N28 billion as well.
“Ministry of Agriculture: you know how important that ministry is, you are talking about food security, and of course, it’s very critical and important to our people across the nation. So, we have maintained their initial figure of N200 billion as well.
“You know how serious the housing deficit in this country is and in M President’s agenda, he wants to build as many houses as he can. So, we have approved N100 billion for the Ministry of Housing.”