NASS Wrong To Remove ‘Presidential Yacht’ From Budget — Reis

A public affairs commentator, Olujimi Reis, has criticized the House of Representatives for removing the N5 billion earmarked for maintenance of the presidential yacht from the 2023 supplemetary budget.

The House of Representatives removed the controversial N5 billion presidential yacht from the 2023 supplementary budget which was passed last Tuesday after the House adopted the report submitted by the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Abubakar Bichi, from Kano State.

Mr Bichi, while speaking to journalists later, said the committee removed the item and moved the money to the student loan section to make it N10 billion.

But reacting in an interview with THE WHISTLER, Reis said the legislators were wrong to have removed it completely from the budget.

“They are not right to have removed it completely. What they should have done is to reduce the cost of maintenance. They can allow the critical components to be serviced but not abandon the boat.

“Because the budget is a supplementary budget, the maintenance of the boat can be partial and limited to critical components repair,” he said.

Reis admitted that the boat was not a priority for Nigeria at the moment, but felt public reactions to it was devoid of objectivity.

“We need to look at issues with some level of objectivity. Firstly, the boat had already been bought by the previous administration. Therefore, it must be maintained. Secondly, when budgets are made, they are the proposed plan to develop and formulate ideas on how to manage the economy with scarce resources.

“Most often, some of these budget plans may not be executed due to the unavailability of funds. Year in, and year out, the neglect becomes apparent requiring huge sums of money to ameliorate,” he stressed.

He said the uproar caused by the boat was due to the name given to it, adding that the boat is for the Navy and it is for the official use of the president.

“The boat is not for the luxury of the president. It is the official form of sea and coastal area transportation of the president. The president may wish to go and commission projects within the riverine areas, the creeks, and other waterways that require the boat. How will he get to know the problems being faced by local communities if he cannot have on-the-spot assessments of the terrain?

“While its importance may not be significant compared to servicing other areas of the budget, its neglect could create a big loss for the country,” he warned.