HURIWA criticizes budget allocation for presidential yacht and Christmas chickens

The Federal and Lagos State governments have come under fire from the civil society organisation Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) for allocating N5 billion for a presidential boat and N18 million for Christmas chickens.

The rights group has also criticised the Senate’s and the President’s dismal handling of the scandalous fallout from the effort to spend a staggering N5 billion on a presidential boat.

HURIWA claims that the situation is shady, suspicious, and completely absurd given President Bola Tinubu’s decision to push for the purchase of the N5 billion yacht and ranking Senator Mohammed Ndume’s admission that the Presidential Yacht was already in the Nigerian Navy’s possession before the budgetary proposal was presented.

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HURIWA noted that earlier in November, during a review of the supplemental budget, Senate Chief Whip Ndume claimed to have provided clarification on the contentious Presidential boat, which is rumoured to be valued at approximately N5 billion.

HURIWA remembered that the senator from Borno South for the All Progressives Congress had stated that the presidential yacht had been signed and delivered but had not been paid for prior to the public uproar. The senator further added that the Senate had subsequently allocated the necessary payment charge to the budget for student loans.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, made this announcement in a statement on Monday. He said that the rights group had been waiting for days to see if any of the individuals from the previous administration who had authorised the delivery of the yacht—even before a legally-mandated payment approval from Parliament—would come forward. The group was shocked that the central government had chosen to ignore the issue.

Because the procurement process was so opaque that it was never carried out in accordance with the six principles of public procurement under the current procurement Act of 2007—accountability, fairness, reliability, transparency, ethical standards, and economy—HURIWA is convinced that the decision regarding the Presidential Yacht has an irreversibly inherent corrupt motive.

“Therefore, HURIWA is urging the president to track down, detain, and bring charges against government employees who approved the N5 billion yacht’s acceptance, of which a portion is to be paid in US dollars,” the statement read.

Furthermore, HURIWA chastised Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos state, for allegedly authorising the payment of N3 billion to buy rechargeable fans for his deputy’s office, Obafemi Hamzat, and N7.5 million to replenish liquid fragrance in his own office.

HURIWA cited a report from the media that was attributed to Funsho Doherty, a chartered accountant and previous candidate for governor of Lagos state. Funsho Doherty reportedly revealed that the state’s Public Procurement Agency (PPA) had approved over N440 million for the purchase of a new Lexus LX 600 Bulletproof Sport Utility Vehicle, which will be used by the Office of Chief of Staff, among other contracts, in the second and third quarters of 2023.

Given that the National Bureau of Statistics reported that over 133 million Nigerian households are multidimensionally poor, “HURIWA condemned the Lagos state government for this profligacy of purchasing multimillion Naira chicken for politicians at a time when a greater percentage of the good people of Lagos state are confronted with mass poverty,” the statement continued.