Tinubu’s jet is needless indulgence

THE purchase of another presidential jet by the Bola Tinubu administration underlines the disdain with which the country’s rulers hold the citizens. That the President finds it convenient to indulge in luxurious ostentation at a time when millions of Nigerians are wallowing in poverty, and misery is an affront to decency. It is provocative, insensitive, and self-serving.

How the Airbus A330 jet was purchased smacks of an appalling lack of transparency and accountability that the Tinubu administration has vowed to entrench in public finances. Media reports suggest that the plane, previously owned by a Saudi company, was secretly bought from a German bank for $100 million through United States and Swiss aircraft brokers and a further $50 million to retrofit it in France. Discussions about the purchase occurred at the National Assembly in June, generating a public outcry. Senate President, Godwill Akpabio, assured that approval would be given if sought.

Nigerians were shocked that the aircraft was listed among the three presidential jets reportedly seized by a French court over a legal dispute between a Chinese firm and the Ogun State Government. After the aircraft was released to allow the President to make his latest trip to France, a presidential aide revealed that the purchase was made from the service-wide vote and Nigerians presented with a fait accompli.

The Tinubu administration has demonstrated poor judgement. Spending $150 million or N240 billion, equivalent to two-thirds of the N362.9 billion 2024 budget for agriculture without appropriation, is an abuse of the SWV.

More confounding is that a presidential jet purchase could be considered a priority when the country is still reeling from the effects of #EndBadGovernance protests during which citizens had demanded an end to bad governance, corruption, hunger, and high cost of living imposed by spiralling inflation due to petrol subsidy removal and naira devaluation.

A premium cannot be placed on luxuriating in decadent opulence when the country is saddled with over N121 trillion in debt and debt servicing accounts for 74 per cent of income.

The country is broke. Nigeria needs to borrow almost N15 trillion to fund the 2024 budget, yet the personal convenience of Nigeria’s rulers takes precedence over the welfare of citizens.

The Presidency argued that the purchase would save Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly. This argument is hollow. The aircraft is the largest ever bought by the Presidential Air Fleet and is estimated to cost between $10,000 and $12,000 per hour to operate, compared with $5,750 per hour for the Boeing 737-700 put up for sale. Timely and adequate maintenance makes aircraft safe.

While the President is entitled to privacy, and security concerning air travel, there are cheaper, more cost-effective options in purpose-built business jets, which can be leased. The UK prime minister flies leased aircraft.

Images emerged last Monday confirming that the Presidency has bought a new set of armoured Cadillac Escalade Limousine SUVs for a reported cost of N950 million each. These complete the trappings of an imperial presidency that Tinubu is imposing on Nigerians with the mile-long convoys of glittering SUVs that have defined his road trips. Nigerians are conscious that N21 billion was spent renovating a new house for the Vice-President.

State governors have taken a cue with several of them lavishing public funds on new limousines and other luxuries. Lawmakers have been paying themselves humongous sums, including N21 million in “running costs” a month and the official N750,000 in a country where 133 million or 63 per cent of citizens are multidimensionally poor.

The NASS, a rubber stamp, has kept mute about the extra-budgetary spending by the Presidency.

It is a travesty that Nigeria’s democracy serves the political class while their impoverished constituents are told to hope for better days.