The chief whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has made some clarifications about the controversial N5 billion presidential yacht budgets by the Nigerian Navy.
Ndume said that the idea of purchasing a yacht was not an initiative of the current federal government, noting that the proposal had been approved as part of the 2023 appropriation bill signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The lawmaker stated this when be appeared on Arise News Television on Friday.
He said the presidential yacht had been signed and delivered but not paid for before the public outcry.
The ranking senator noted that the red chamber has since added the required payment fee to the student loan budget.
“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,” Ndume said.
“The Navy also clarified that it is not a new budget. And even the House of Representatives moved the budget to the Student loan. The deal for the yacht has been agreed, signed, and delivered but not paid for.”
While speaking on the N160 million for Land Cruiser SUV for each lawmaker in the National Assembly, the chief hip stressed that it is not a new thing for government workers to be buying vehicles for official duties.
He maintained that the price of the vehicles was also affected by the volatility of the naira to dollar rate, adding that the vehicles are needed for the lawmakers.
“The reason why we did not choose Nigerian-made cars is because they don’t manufacture their vehicles, but they assemble them.
“I prefer Nigerian-made products, but the Nigerian car companies are only buying the vehicle parts and assembling them here.”