Presidential Yacht: We’ve Converted Provision to Students Loan-Reps. Appropriation Committee

Against public umbrage on the inclusion of a Presidential yacht in the 2023 supplementary budget, the House of Representatives rose to douse tension on Thursday clearing the air on the matter.

Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Mr. Abubakar Bichi, revealed that the budget for the yacht had, in fact, been transferred to the provision  of students loan, one of the cardinal projects in President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

According to The Cable, Bichi made the disclosure while briefing National Assembly Correspondents (House of Reps. corps) after the passage of the supplementary budget which he hoped President Tinubu would append his signature to this Friday. .

“As far as we are concerned we don’t have that presidential yacht anymore. We have increased the student loan,” Bichi announced.

“If you recall, the student loan was N5 billion in the budget but we have increased it to N10 billion.”

It would be recalled that the Federal Government had proposed for N5billion for the provision of a presidential yacht under the Navy’s budget in the 2023 Supplementary appropriations.

But the action triggered immediate outrage from Nigerians who felt that the provision was not sensitive to the suffering of the masses and the public demand for political office holders to equally tighten their belts as the country struggles through these difficult times.