FG Swaps Controversial N5bn Presidential Yacht Votes For Navy Barges

The Federal Government has swapped the controversial N5bn presidential yacht votes for Navy barges.

The presidential yacht was replaced by the purchase of a self-propelled barge with the same amount of N5.095bn.

Self-propelled barges are cargo-carrying vessels specifically engineered for operation on inland waterways.

Similarly, the purchase of official vehicles for the office of the First Lady valued at N1.5bn remained in the budget, while the education loan fund for funding student loans was increased to N10bn from N5.5bn previously allotted.

This was revealed from the data obtained from the newly Revised 2023 Supplementary Budget.

The data also indicated an increase in the budget for defence from N476.54bn to N546.21bn and earmarked N20bn as capital supplementation for the National Intelligence Agency.

It would be recalled that controversy trailed the recently approved N2.1tn 2023 Supplementary Budget following the discovery of seemingly extravagant items, forcing an amendment by the National Assembly.

In the approved and newly revised document, the four-month wage award has been cut down by the Federal Government to N110bn as against the N210bn in the proposed document.

The Ministry of Defence budget rose from N476.54bn to N546.21bn, indicating an additional allocation of N69.67bn in the revised budget.

Earlier caught up on the
controversial N5.095bn for the purchase of a presidential yacht, the Nigeria Navy, got an additional N25bn to its total allocation.

Its total allocation rose from N62.8bn in the proposed supplementary budget to N87.8bn in the approved document.

The Nigerian Navy also got extra allocation for the construction of two buildings in Enugu and Ebonyi worth N3bn each.

About N19bn was also allocated for the purchase of two tugboats, which are used to pull or push other large ships for manoeuvring or salvage purposes.

The total allocation for the Defence Intelligence Agency is now N47.04bn in the approved copy. It means the Agency got an extra N30bn to its total allocation, from N17.04bn in the proposed document.

It was further observed that allocations to the Office of the National Security Adviser, headed by Nuhu Ribadu, increased by N20.3bn from N29.7bn to N50.02bn.