Nigeria’s Presidential Yacht Controversy By Naptu2.

Once again, there has been controversy over a request by the Nigerian Navy for a presidential yacht. I have heard all kinds of stories since the news broke. Some people said that it’s for a party, others asked how the yacht can be used in Abuja, etc. This issue seems to crop up every few years, so I guessed what was happening as soon as I heard it and I have been proved right.

Summary:

1) What is a presidential yacht used for? It is used primarily for presidential fleet reviews.

2) Is this the first time that we would be having a yacht for our head of state? No, I will tell you about 3 previous yachts.

3) Is this the first time that we have had controversy over the Navy’s request for a presidential yacht? No, there have been 2 previous controversies in recent times.

4) Do we need a presidential yacht? I have watched 4 previous presidential fleet reviews (President Babangida in 1987, President Obasanjo in 2006, President Jonathan in 2010 and President Buhari in 2023) and I know that the Nigerian Navy has other vessels that can do the job perfectly well. I will tell you about the other vessels.

Why we do not need a presidential yacht and why the Nigerian Navy keeps asking for one.

My first reaction as soon as I heard that there was a request for a presidential yacht was, “But the fleet review is over”.

A fleet review is an event in which warships parade and are reviewed by a very senior official, usually the president/head of state. Quite often warships from all over the world come to take part in fleet reviews. British, American, Chinese, French, Ghanaian and Beninese warships have taken part in fleet reviews in Nigeria. Nigerian warships have taken part in fleet reviews in the United Kingdom (to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar), Brazil (to mark the 100th anniversary of the Brazilian Navy), Australia (to mark the 100th anniversary of the Australian Navy), etc.

The Nigerian Navy is asking for a presidential yacht, so that the president will have a well-protected vessel from which he can watch the ceremony and review the fleet. That’s basically what a presidential yacht is used for in Nigeria. The Navy has made this request several times since Year 2000 and it leads to controversy every time. I do not believe that the Navy needs a presidential yacht and I will explain why.

In 1987 I watched the NTA News and they showed President Babangida taking a helicopter ride from Dodan Barracks to NNS Aradu, Nigeria’s flagship. He watched the fleet review from NNS Aradu and this left an impression on me. I believed then that the president should watch such things from the Aradu because it is Nigeria’s flagship.

Some might argue that the 1987 fleet review was held at the same time as an operation in the open ocean, but that fleet reviews usually happen at the Elegbata Channel, Commodore’s Channel, etc, which are shallower and that the Aradu is too big to be used by the president for a fleet review. I have an answer to that argument.

The Nigerian Navy held an international fleet review in 2010 to mark the 50th anniversary of Nigeria. It had asked for money to buy a presidential yacht, but this caused controversy in the media and the government was roundly criticised. Therefore, no presidential yacht was bought. Instead President Jonathan reviewed the fleet from a Shaldag MK II patrol boat of the Nigerian Navy. You can see the boat (guarded by SBS commandoes in rafts) in the first picture below.

Another fleet review was held in May this year. I had expected another controversy over presidential yacht, but there was none (now we know why). President Muhammadu Buhari reviewed the fleet from aboard NNS Sokoto, an OCEA fast patrol craft.

In other words, the Nigerian Navy has a lot of patrol boats that the president can use to review the fleet. We don’t need a presidential yacht.

In fact, the Chief of the Naval Staff already has an official motorboat/yacht. The CNS has always had an official motorboat and it is used to get to Nigerian Navy installations and the Navy House at Queen’s Drive in Ikoyi (opposite Five Cowrie Creek). The president can use that if he needs to review the fleet.

NNS Sokoto is very important to my argument. One of the reasons that the Navy says that it needs a presidential yacht is because of security. The president needs extra security and the Navy does not want him to be attacked while reviewing the fleet and so it says that it needs a presidential yacht.

ProForce is a Nigerian defence and armouring company. They armour civilian vehicles and produce armoured cars for the Nigerian Army and armoured boats for the Nigerian Navy.

Ahead of this year’s fleet review, ProForce installed bulletproof glass and other security features on NNS Sokoto, so that the president could use it. So why do we need a presidential yacht? It must be cheaper to install security features on an already existing patrol boat than to buy a presidential yacht.

Finally, the last reason why I believe that we do not need a presidential yacht has to do with frequency. Presidential fleet reviews are rare and I don’t think that we should spend so much money on something that we will rarely use. These are the fleet reviews that I remember.

1987.

2006 (to mark the 50th anniversary of the Nigerian Navy). 19 years’ gap.

2010 (to mark Nigeria’s 50th anniversary). 4 years’ gap.

2023 (to mark the end of the Buhari Era). 13 years’ gap.

Why should we spend so much on something we will rarely use, especially when there are many alternatives?

The Navy might argue that it will be used as a training ship. Well, we already have a training ship.

A lot of Niger-Delta businessmen got security contracts during the Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan eras. A businessman, Cyprian Imobhio, who was chief executive and managing director of Uniglobe Group, bought a decommissioned Irish warship, the LE Emer. He wanted to use it to execute one of those contracts. The Nigerian Government seized it because he did not have permission to operate a warship in Nigeria. It was handed over to the Navy and became the training ship NNS Prosperity. So we do not need a presidential yacht.


Pictures and video: President Muhammadu Buhari reviewing the fleet from aboard NNS Sokoto earlier this year.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeLtSmUBC-c

Alternatives.

naptu2:
The Navy might argue that it will be used as a training ship. Well, we already have a training ship.

A lot of Niger-Delta businessmen got security contracts during the Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan eras. A businessman, Cyprian Imobhio, who was chief executive and managing director of Uniglobe Group, bought a decommissioned Irish warship, the LE Emer. He wanted to use it to execute one of those contracts. The Nigerian Government seized it because he did not have permission to operate a warship in Nigeria. It was handed over to the Navy and became the training ship NNS Prosperity. So we do not need a presidential yacht.

Pictures = NNS Prosperity.

Previous yachts.


Pictures 1 and 2.

The Nigerian Government Steam Yacht "Ivy" in 1904

"The photo of the 'Ivy' is by Jonathan A. Green, an Ibani Ijo photographer from Nigeria." (see comments below for more information). The onboard photos were taken during a trip from London to the Canary Islands in August/September 1904. That year "after being in commission for 3 1/2 years [it] was sent home for repairs, the cost of which amounted to over £12, 500. The annual upkeep of this vessel [was] about £7,500 and her original cost was some £60,000." Source: Colonial Reports - Annual. No 459. SOUTHERN NIGERIA. Report for 1904 (published September, 1905), p. 49. See also the 1905 Colonial Report (p. 46) and The Mail, Adelaide (Australia), November 26, 1914, p. 1. According to one source, it was "built and engined by Earle's Shipbuilding and engineering Co., Limited. Hull [England] 1895 from the designs of Messrs J. Thomson and Sons, London, for the Royal Niger Coast Protectorate." That same source has several pictures of a model of this ship with close-ups of details:

Picture 3.

Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi on board H.M. Yacht Ivy, on his way to Calabar where he was sent into Exile and lived until his death in 1914.

S.S Valiant.

This was the Governor-General's yacht during the Colonial Era. It was used for fleet reviews and other ceremonial occasions. President Nnamdi Azikiwe inherited the yacht and he was on a cruise of the Caribbean on this yacht when the January 1966 coup took place.

You might know this yacht because of its role in the 1980s. It was kept at Marina in Lagos and converted into a very famous nightclub/restaurant called The Floating Bukka.

Rear Admiral Alfred Diette-Spiff was the governor of Rivers State during the Gowon era. He bought this yacht so that he and his Executive Council could stay on it when they were visiting the creeks of the state. It was called the Ogina Bereton.

The Murtala Muhammed Administration believed that the yacht was too luxurious, so they converted it into a presidential yacht and training ship. It was renamed Ruwan Yaro.

NNS Ruwan Yaro was later renamed NNS Amaria.

NNS Amaria was decommissioned a long time ago and since then the Navy has been asking for money for a new yacht.

2010 thread

freegaza:
Navy to buy N3.3bn presidential yatch for Jonathan

Written by Francis Okeke & Turaki A. Hassan
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 04:39

If the Naval headquarters has its way, President Goodluck Jonathan will cruise in a N3.3bn Presidential Yatch in an “International Sea Exercise and Presidential Fleet Review for Nigeria’s 50th Independence Anniversary.”

Daily Trust gathered from impeccable sources in Abuja yesterday that the request forwarded to the Minister of Defence Adetokunbo Kayode from the office of the Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ishaya Iko Ibrahim seeks to spend N4 billion both for the purchase of the Presidential Yatch and N16m as operational costs for the participation of NN Augusta Helicopters, Defender and Nightcat Interceptor boats in the anniversary celebration.

The proposal has been passed to the Nigeria at 50 anniversary committee in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, sources close to the secretariat told Daily Trust yesterday.

The source said about 15 ships are expected to participate in the exercise with a proposal to repair six non-operation ships including the NNS Aradu which is the pride of the Nigerian Navy.

Similarly, the Naval headquarters is proposing to spend N17m for media coverage of the event while N3 million would be expended on the supply and installation of long and short range communication equipment and split unit air conditioners.

Former President Shehu Shagari is the last known Nigerian leader to have participated in a Presidential Fleet Review to mark Nigeria’s Independence anniversary in 1981.

Checks on the Internet last night showed that the United Kingdom has had 83 royal yachts since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660.

Charles II had 25 Royal Yachts, while five were simultaneously in service in 1831. Since the decommissioning of Britannia in 1997 the Queen no longer has a royal yacht and in Finland the president has a small private yacht.

Yachts are different from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose, and it was not until the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat that sailing vessels in general came to be perceived as luxury, or recreational vessels. Later the term came to encompass motor boats for primarily private pleasure purposes as well.

http://www.news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21244:navy-to-buy-n33bn-presidential-yatch-for-jonathan&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=214

More 2010 arguments

Like I said, I immediately suspected that the presidential yacht was for the fleet review that took place earlier this year. But the fleet review is over, so why is this controversy coming up now?

That's what the National Assembly is investigating. The Navy put a request for a presidential yacht in the Ministry of Defence's budget (the supplementary budget). The House of Representatives transferred the money to the student loan scheme. However, the National Assembly now says that it has discovered that the Navy already spent the money and that the yacht arrived just after the fleet review. It has vowed to investigate the Navy for spending the money without permission from the National Assembly.

Presidential yacht already in Nigeria as Reps panel investigates Navy over procurement

The Navy said the presidential yacht “came a little after the Presidential Fleet Review 2023 for which she was to be put to use by the then president (Muhammadu Buhari).”

By Bakare Majeed November 3, 2023

The House of Representatives Committee on Navy will be investigating the Nigerian Navy for procuring the controversial presidential yacht without the approval of the National Assembly.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Navy, Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau) told PREMIUM TIMES via phone interview that the Navy already procured the yacht before seeking approval from the National Assembly.

Mr Gagdi, who was also the Chairman of the Committee on Navy in the ninth assembly, said his committee never approved the procurement but the Navy embarked on extra-budgetary spending.

“Committee on Navy will investigate how a platform was brought in without the approval of the parliament. We will soon commence an investigation,” he said.

Controversial presidential yacht

On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu submitted a N2.17 trillion budget to the National Assembly. However, a review of the budget shows that it contained some extravagant spending including N5 billion for presidential yacht and some other expenses.

Following the public outcry, the House of Representatives passed the budget without the presidential yacht. It added the funds for the yacht to the student loan line of the budget.

The Presidency, via a statement by Bayo Onanuga, claimed that the yacht was not meant for the president. He claimed that the Navy had requested to buy the platform and it was approved by the last administration.

“The Naval boat was ordered by the navy under the previous administration. President Tinubu has consistently said that the government is a continuum as he inherited both assets and liabilities of past administrations,” he said.

The Majority Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, while speaking on Arise TV, on Friday revealed that the navy already procured the platform and was just requesting the money to pay the vendor.

Mr Ndume, who was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Army in the ninth National Assembly, said the presidential yacht is already in Nigeria.

“We queried the amount budgeted for the yacht, but it was signed for a dollar rate, and the new rate isn’t favourable. The budget was predicated on about N435, and now it is over N800.

“The Navy also clarified that it is not a new budget. And even the House of Representatives moved the budget to the Student loan. The deal for the yacht has been agreed, signed, and delivered but not paid for,” Mr Ndume said.

We never gave the approval to buy the platform

Mr Gagdi confirmed that the platform is already in Nigeria, noting that the Navy broke the law by procuring a naval platform without the approval of the National Assembly.

“As a parliamentarian and representative of the people, I will be the last person to support anybody, any government agency to procure anything without money being budgeted for it.

“In my four years chairmanship of the Committee on Navy, I am not aware at any time where the Navy approached me or my committee or the House of Representatives asking for monetary provision for the procurement of a presidential yacht. I am not aware of that. It is against our law for any agency to bring any platform without the approval of the parliament making monetary provision for it. I know nothing about it.

“What I know, I will tell you what I know. I only saw it just like any other Nigerian who saw it on social media,” he said.

The legislator explained the presidential yacht is to be used by the President to do the ceremonial inspection of Naval assets.

He noted that if the Navy had informed the legislators and got the needed approval, they would have known how to explain to the Nigerians.

“I know what a presidential yacht should be. It should be a war yacht that the president uses to go into the water to see the display of national assets that the navy has in terms of ships that fight oil thefts, piracy, and all forms of crimes in our water.

“In our water, where most of the economic transactions are taking place, the navy is situated within our water to ensure the safety of our water. There is a tradition for Mr President to see the display of activities by the Navy.

“If the navy is procuring a N5 billion presidential yacht, we would have known how to explain to Nigerians that this is what the navy has done, what they intend to do, and equally tell Nigerians that there is a need to have that. Just because Nigeria controls the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria is the biggest navy within the Gulf of Guinea. The Nigerian Navy is the biggest platform, so they need it. To buy it without telling us is a different thing. I am not aware of it”

Navy reacts

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the spokesperson of the Nigerian Navy, Ayo Vaughan, he said the new presidential ship was to replace the MV Amaria that used to serve as the presidential yacht.

Mr Vaughan added that the ‘boat’ was ordered to be used by then President Muhammadu Buhari for the Presidential Fleet Review 2023.

“Yes, under the immediate past administration, a long overdue request was made for a Presidential yacht to replace MV AMARIA, the defunct Presidential yacht. Also to be used for the Presidential Fleet Review 2023 that was held in May this year,” he said.

He added that the presidential yacht “came a little after the Presidential Fleet Review 2023 for which she was to be put to use by the then president.”

Mr Buhari, on 11 May, inspected the Naval fleet in Lagos and inaugurated two ships into the fleet.

When Mr Vaughan, a commodore, was asked about getting the approval of the National Assembly, he directed the reporter to the Chairmen of Committees on Navy at the National Assembly.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/639876-presidential-yacht-already-in-nigeria-as-reps-panel-investigates-navy-over-procurement.html


Screenshot below is of the request for funds for a presidential yacht in the supplementary budget. See more at the Budget Office's website here: https://www.budgetoffice.gov.ng/index.php/resources/internal-resources/budget-documents/2023-supplementary-proposal/viewdocument/948

1) President Nnamdi Azikiwe reviewing the fleet.

2) President Olusegun Obasanjo reviewing the fleet in 2006.

3) President Goodluck Jonathan reviewing the fleet in 2010.

4) President Muhammadu Buhari reviewing the fleet in 2023.

The former chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral AZ Gambo, sailing out on NNS Sokoto. There is no reason why NNS Sokoto cannot serve as a presidential vessel for fleet reviews.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ioBW9cU3n4

The former chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ette Ibas sailing out on the chief of naval staff's official motorboat (NN01). There is no reason why NN01 cannot serve as presidential vessel at fleet reviews.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dk5cPkSA6s

Good job

Just tell us that we don't need presidential yatcht. All these long write up, black & white pictures from 20th century is meaningless.


There is no coastal water in FCT...you spend #5b to buy SUVs for the president. Yet you're telling the citizens to endure. Then u want to spend another #5b for yatch? Shey d Nigeria navy no get helicopter to fly our president?

The Navy needs no new Presidential Yatch. One of the ships can be converted to one!

Oga NAPTU ... WELL DONE...

IPOB terrorists over to you

If there is no way the president can inspect the Navy or fleet, let him swim to do so at least he is Lagos boy

Tinubu must start suing this idiots


Each agency and parastatal present therr annual budget estimate and it gets forwarded to the National Assembly

Suddenly they blame only one man Tinubu



.

I forgot to post this picture.

President Goodluck Jonathan reviewing the fleet in 2010. You can see SBS commandos guarding the Shaldag MK II patrol boat.

Rubbish

Y

Ride on Naptu. You're the man. Expose the ignorance of many of these peeps who have brains but refuse to use it. Kudos to you and yours.

Some actually thought the president was getting a presidential yacht to relax and enjoy himself with his fam.

Xwizard:
Rubbish

How Is it rubbish, because it doesn't suit your narrative, right? Lmao.

All president of Nigeria use to buy yatch for navy

We have checked the national budget office website..the navy is under the ministry of defense. There is nothing like procurement of presidential yacht in their 2024 budget proposal. Leave the Navy alone. Don't use them as scape goat.

Quite curious that a N5b Yatch was delivered to Nigeria without full or part payment & without budget approval from Lawmakers.

Whoever initiated the Transaction or Received the Yatch needs to answer some serious questions.

Can we even see a picture of this Yacht? Chances are that it is a fraudulent scheme by some persons to pocket N5b for a Yacht that was never delivered.

Fraudulent people in power