The National Assembly has claimed that it added the N5 billion President Bola Tinubu wanted for a presidential yacht to what was proposed for student loans before approving the supplementary budget.

After federal lawmakers approved the N2.17 trillion supplementary appropriation bill presented by Tinubu on Thursday, their silence on the controversial allocation of N5 billion for a presidential yacht spurred media insinuations that Tinubu got what he asked for.

The two arms of the National Assembly had harmonised the supplementary budget at a joint sitting, leading to an adoption of their report by the Senate.

The budget was earlier considered and approved by the Federal Executive Council on Monday and forwarded to the National Assembly for approval.

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Tinubu had explained that the budgetary request was conceived to cater to the payment of wage awards to workers and the distribution of relief interventions to the poor following the discontinuation of the petrol subsidy regime.

The original proposal allocated funds for student loans, the purchase of a yacht, luxury vehicles for the first lady and the renovation of the official residences of President Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, his deputy.

Some Nigerians, however, described the president’s request to purchase a yacht as insensitive at a time the naira was falling freely and the nation’s economy nose-dived.

Abubaker Bichi, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, however, said that the N5 billion proposed for a presidential yacht had been added to the amount initially budgeted for student loans, according to TheCable.

“As far as we are concerned, we don’t have the presidential yacht anymore. We have increased the student loan,” he was quoted to have said.

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