Tope Ajayi, a spokesperson for President Bola Tinubu has stated that the nation’s leader did not request the N5 billion presidential yacht proposed by the Nigerian Navy.
Since the publication of the specifics of Tinubu’s N2.1 trillion supplementary budget to the National Assembly, there has been an outcry.
The N5.09 billion presidential yacht was included in the Nigerian Navy’s projected N42.3 billion capital budget.
In response to the criticisms that have surrounded the matter, Ajayi stated that he doubted the President required a yacht to carry out his duties.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, stressed that Tinubu did not want a yacht and did not require one to execute his duties given the present status of the economy.
The request for a yacht, according to him, was framed in the Navy’s budget, and it is presumed that they have an operational rationale for it.
“It has become a pattern for some individuals, CSOs and a section of the media to pick one or two line items every budget cycle for sensational headlines, deliberately ignoring context in their reporting.
“The public that should benefit from good journalism, which should primarily educate and adequately inform, is left confused and miseducated due to the mischaracterisation of issues and misrepresentation of facts.
“The trending issues on social media since yesterday are two items in the 2023 supplementary budget.
“One is the provision for a presidential yacht in the supplementary budget by the Navy and the other is over N6 billion for vehicles to the State House.
“It is important to state clearly that President Bola Tinubu didn’t ask for a presidential yacht and I doubt he needs one to perform the functions of his office.
“From what I know, the request for a yacht, however it is named or couched in the budget is from the Navy and they must have operational reasons for why it is required.
“The budget office should be in a position to also explain to the public why such expenditure should be accommodated now, considering the economic situation of the country.
“I must readily admit that the one reason our budgeting system has been a subject of public attack is the very simplistic way some of the line items are described by civil servants, who prepare the budget.
“Examples abound. Sometimes in 2016, an Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP) project of the Ministry of Solid Minerals worth over N300m was captured in that year’s budget as a “website”.
“Naturally, it generated a massive controversy as people, rightly, asked to know the type of website that would be built with N300 million.
“It is important to say that journalism should enrich public enlightenment and not create an atmosphere of siege.
“It is poor reporting to always reduce State House budgetary provisions to the President and Vice President.
“When the State House makes provision for vehicles, it is reported as if it is the President that will use all the vehicles or eat all the food when a provision is made for food and catering services. We have had such inaccurate reporting in the past,” the statement reads.
