House of Representatives in Nigeria reject plan to buy presidential yacht

Nigeria's lower chamber of parliament has rejected the government's plan to buy a presidential yacht for $6m (£5m), a senior lawmaker has said.

Nigerians had criticised the plan as a waste of money on luxuries during an economic crisis.

Lawmakers instead moved the $6m to the student loan budget, doubling its allocation, Abubakar Bichi said.

President Bola Tinubu took office in May with a promise to cut waste, and ease people's financial hardship.

But he triggered an outcry after he tabled a supplementary budget in the National Assembly for approval, with the planned purchase of the yacht listed under the Nigerian Navy's proposed capital expenditure of $53m.

Human rights activist and former lawmaker Shehu Sani reacted by saying that "the poor can't be struggling for survival in a canoe while their leader is yachting".

Mr Tinubu's spokesman Temitope Ajayi distanced the president from plans to buy the yacht.

"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," he said.

The budget was approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday.

But Mr Bichi, chairman of the influential House Committee on Appropriation and a member of Mr Tinubu's ruling party, told local journalists that lawmakers had declined to approve the allocation for a presidential yacht.

The budget also earmarks $36m for State House expenditure, including the purchase of luxury vehicles and the construction of a presidential office complex.

The government is also planning to spend $15m (£13m) on the presidential air fleet.

The controversy comes at a time when Mr Tinubu is under intense pressure over the cost-of-living crisis, and a massive fall in the value of Nigeria's currency, the naira, against the dollar.

Nigeria's annual inflation rose to 26.7% in September, according to official statistics.

A leading advocacy group in Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (Serap), said the purchase of a yacht could not be justified when "137 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty".

It added that their plight worsened after Mr Tinubu scrapped a fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech as president, causing the price of fuel and other basic commodities to rise.

Activist Omoyele Sowore accused the government of spending on luxuries while it "maintains the miseries of the Nigerian populace".

Mr Ajayi said the president and his vice-president were not planning to add new vehicles to their fleet, and were using "inherited vehicles" from the previous administration.

He said the budget for vehicles was for hundreds of civil servants and political aides working at State House.

By Farouk Chothia & Wycliffe Muia, BBC

Related story: SUVs and Yachts in Nigeria Budget During Economic Hardship

SUVs and Yachts in Nigeria Budget During Economic Hardship

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s first supplementary budget includes a fleet of SUVs for himself and his wife, a presidential yacht and the renovation of his villa amid a cost-of-living crisis for some of the poorest people in the world.

The proposal — which seeks additional funding beyond the annual budget approved by Tinubu’s predecessor — comes as the government asks Nigerians to persevere through pain caused in part by a raft of economic reforms ushered in by the new president. Africa’s most populous country faces rampant unemployment, soaring food prices and a plummeting currency.

Federal lawmakers approved the president’s request for extra spending on Thursday, but eliminated the provision of 5 billion naira ($6.01 million) to buy a presidential yacht. Instead, the doubled the allocation to a student loan fund to 10 billion naira, according Abubakar Bichi, chairman of an appropriations committee in the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers approved 1.5 billion-naira proposed to purchase SUVs for the office of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu — an amount larger than that allocated to many individual federal colleges. The supplementary budget also proposes almost 6 billion naira to purchase SUVs for the presidency — more than the amount initially allocated to fund a student loan program for poor families.

A spokesman said the president didn’t ask for a yacht and criticized coverage of the budget. The “public attack” is because of the “very simplistic way some of the line items are described by civil servants, who prepare the budget,” Temitope Ajayi said in a column posted to a local media outlet. New vehicles, he said, will be used by aides and civil servants, not Tinubu himself.

The legislature has also been slammed for buying hundreds of its own expensive SUVs.

Tinubu, who took office in May, ended a popular but costly fuel subsidy and removed currency restrictions that saw prices spike and the naira sharply devalued. That’s left many households struggling to survive in Africa’s most populous nation, where at least 40% of its more than 200 million people live in extreme poverty.

Last year, the country spent about 96% of its revenue servicing debt and the government plans to raise 9 trillion naira to help fund next year’s budget.

By Nduka Orjinmo, Bloomberg

Video - Nigerian official wants to close IDP camps in country's northeast

A top official in north-eastern Nigeria says Islamic militant groups, such as Boko Haram, are trying to recruit new members from the internally displaced persons who live in the camps.

CGTN

Militants kill 37 villagers in latest attack in Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 37 villagers in two different attacks, residents said Wednesday, highlighting once again how deadly islamic extremist rebels have remained in their 14-year insurgency in the hard-hit region.

The extremists targeted villagers in Yobe state’s Geidam district on Monday and Tuesday in the first attack in the state in more than a year, shooting dead 17 people at first while using a land mine to kill 20 others who had gone to attend their burial, witnesses said.

The Boko Haram Islamic extremist group launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 in an effort to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. At least 35,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced due to the extremist violence concentrated in Borno state, which neighbors Yobe.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who took office in May, has not succeeded in ending the nation’s security crises both in the northeast and in northwest and central regions where dozens of armed groups have been killing villagers and kidnapping travelers for ransom.

The first attack occurred in the remote Gurokayeya village in Geidam when gunmen opened fire on some villagers late Monday, killing 17 of them, according to Shaibu Babagana, a resident in the area. At least 20 villagers who had gone to attend their burial were then killed on Tuesday when they drove into a land mine that exploded, Babagana added.

Idris Geidam, another resident, said those killed were more than 40. Authorities could not provide the official death toll, as is sometimes the case following such attacks.

“This is one of the most horrific attacks by Boko Haram in recent times. For a burial group to be attacked shortly after the loss of their loved ones is beyond horrific,” Geidam said.

The Yobe state government on Wednesday summoned an emergency security meeting over the attacks which it blamed on extremists that entered the state from the neighboring Borno.

“The security agencies have deployed security men to the area and we are studying a report on the infiltration in an effort to stave off future occurrences,” Abdulsalam Dahiru, a Yobe government security aide, told reporters.

By Haruna Umar, AP 

President Tinubu seeks Senate approval to borrow $8 billion

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday asked the Senate to approve nearly $8 billion in new debt as part of a 2022-24 external borrowing plan to finance infrastructure, health, education and security.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer, has been relying increasingly on debt due to lower tax collections and lower oil exports, its biggest foreign currency earner.

In a letter to the Senate, Tinubu requested $7.86 billion and 100 million euros ($105.40 million) but did not say where the money would come from.

Nigeria has raised money in international credit markets, including through eurobonds, and borrowed from lenders like the World Bank and African Development Bank for budget support.

"In view of the present economic realities facing the country, it has become imperative to use the external borrowing to bridge the financing gap which will be applied to key infrastructure projects including power, railway, health among others," said Tinubu.

The government has said it wants to encourage investments rather than rely on borrowing to create jobs and build infrastructure.

The Senate and House of Assembly are considering a supplementary budget of 2.176 trillion naira ($2.8 billion) to fund "urgent issues" including defence and security.

Nigeria's cabinet two weeks ago approved 26.01 trillion naira ($34 billion) for next year's budget, of which about a third is earmarked for interest payments.

Some 40% of Nigeria's total debt is external. 

By MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters