The federal government has allocated N12.7 billion for the maintenance and operation of the presidential air fleet in the 2023 supplementary budget.
The amount is part of the recurrent expenditure of the office of the national security adviser (ONSA), which has a total budget of N29.7 billion.
The ONSA also plans to spend N4.7 billion on the settlement of outstanding annual service legal agreement and bandwidth subscription for its intelligence platforms, and N10 billion on operation MAD Thunder-NSA.
Another N2.2 billion will be used as “part settlement of outstanding liabilities for procurement of treated/operational vehicles for State House and ONSA”.
The presidential air fleet, which consists of 10 jets, has been a source of public criticism due to the high cost of maintenance.
Already, Nigeria has budgeted N73.3 billion for the presidential air fleet from 2011 to 2020. In 2016, former President Muhammadu Buhari promised to sell two of the jets to save costs.
However, the presidential fleet already received a N13 billion allocation in the 2023 approved budget.
In addition, the federal government intends to spend N5 billion for the purchase of a presidential yacht. The proposed sum is under the capital expenditure of the Nigerian Navy’s budget, which amounts to N62.8 billion.
On Monday, the federal executive council (FEC) approved the submission of a supplementary budget of over N2.17 trillion to the national assembly.
The president requested a “speedy” consideration and approval of the appropriation bill by the lawmakers, who passed it for a second reading on Tuesday.
If approved by the national assembly, the supplementary budget will raise Nigeria’s total 2024 budget to N28.17 trillion.
