 |
| One of the PAF |
The
Saturday Punch today reported that the presidency has in its wing ten Presidential
aircrafts which has so far gulped about N5bn to maintain in the last 15 months,
according to exclusive documents the Newspaper obtained from a presidential
source
According to the
document, the Presidency put the amount of money so far released for the
Presidential Air Fleet since the inception of the current administration in May
2015 till date in the region of N5bn.
However aviation industry experts have a different view, they believe
the Federal Government may have spent about N19.9bn on the 10-aircraft PAF in
the last 15 months of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration
The estimated projections of expenses made in line with the cost of
running and maintaining airplanes according to these aviation experts is about
$65.13m (N19.9bn), using the official exchange rate of N305.5 per dollar, may
have been spent on the 10-aircraft presidential fleet between May 29, 2015 and
August 29, 201
The 10 presidential air fleet inherited from the former President
Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is the second largest airline in the
country, coming after Arik Air which has 23 aircraft in its fleet.
The 10 presidential air fleet according to the presidential source are:
Boeing Business Jet (Boeing 737-800 or AirForce One), one Gulfstream 550, one
Gulfstream V (Gulfstream 500), two Falcons 7X, one Hawker Sidley 4000, two
AgustaWestland AW 139 helicopters and two AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopters.
Each of the two Falcon 7X jets were purchased in 2010 by the Federal Government
for $51.1m, while the Gulfstream 550 costs $53.3m, a former Minister of
Information, the late Pro. Dora Akunyili, had said.
The General Secretary,
Aviation Round Table, an industry pressure group, Group Captain John Ojikutu,
said Buhari needed to reduce the PAF and sell aircraft belonging to most of the
Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He said, “It is high
time the Presidency reduced the number of aircraft in that fleet. We can’t be
spending our scarce forex to maintain a large fleet of 10 aircraft.”\
Most aviation experts
and prominent Nigerians have condemned the large presidential air fleet
maintained by the APC led Buhari administration, calling it a wasteful
practice, same as they had accused former President, Goodluck Jonathan for.
Amongst those who have
spoken out against this wasteful nature of the presidency is a former Governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji
Balarabe Musa, said President Buhari administration “is as wasteful as the
administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.”
Nigeria happens to be
one of the few countries with a large PAF.
Most major countries in
Europe and Asia maintain two aircraft in their PAF. According to Wikipedia, Japan maintains
only two Boeing 747-400 planes in its PAF.
Netherlands government
operates only two aircraft, a Fokker 70 and Gulfstream IV to transport the
Dutch Royal family and government officials such as the Prime Minister and
other ministers.
The Queen of England and
the UK’s Prime Ministers often go on British Airways chartered flights for long
trips.
No comments:
Post a Comment