Nigerian Jet for Malawian President

Malawi’s President, Joyce Banda, sold her cash-strapped country’s only presidential jet to save costs.

President Goodluck Jonathan, has in three years in office, expanded Nigeria’s executive fleet to 10 aircraft (In that single Presidential Fleet, you have Boeing, Falcons, Gulfstream, Hawker and Cessna)

Nigeria dispatched a jet from its Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) late last month (June) to fetch

Malawi’s President, Joyce Banda, to Abuja

Over 60 % of Nigeria population living in poverty

Provision has reportedly been made to purchase

two additional helicopters to ensure

the President,

Vice-President,

their families, and

other top functionaries

travel in luxury at

public expense

Joyce Banda was in Nigeria to deliver the keynote address at the Global Power Women Network Africa summit in Abuja at the invitation of Nigeria’s First Lady. To ease her trip to Nigeria’s capital, our generous government dispatched a jet to pick her from Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, and return her home after the event. That is to be expected since Malawi lacks a presidential aircraft

Joyce Banda assumed office in 2012; she took a critical look at her country’s economy.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had withdrawn most aid in response to the purchase in 2009 of a presidential jet by Banda’s predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, and his abandonment of an IMF-dictated adjustment programme. Other donors followed the World Bank/IMF lead.

Almost 40 % of the

national budget

came from aid donors

revenues from its major exports – tobacco, tea, coffee and sugar – were falling due to lower global demand and

prices

Withdrawn

Joyce Banda sold the presidential plane for $15 million (N2.33B)

Also sold off a fleet of 60 Mercedes Benz limousines reserved for the president and the cabinet.

She cut her own salary by 30%, among other austerity measures.

Sold!

Sold!

Her actions won praise around the world and convinced the IMF and other aid donors to return

with credit and handouts to back the government’s ongoing painful structural

adjustment programme.

Restored!

But Nigerian leaders will not sacrifice their own comfort for anything. Even in a rich country

like Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron and cabinet members took pay cuts in

response to the global recession and the spending cuts that the government introduced. Here, our

leaders are obsessed with living in luxury, regardless of the mass of people who are

poor, the lack of infrastructure, mass unemployment and dwindling revenues.

Okonjo-Iweala’s warning that the government may run out of money to pay salaries by October in the face of massive oil theft and vandalism of pipelines that have sharply reduced oil production and revenues has not

jolted officials. Neither the wasteful Executive nor the overpaid legislators are ready to

give up their luxurious lifestyles.

The British Queen, Elizabeth II, and Cameron travel on chartered British Airways flights, despite their country’s

$2.32 trillion GDP and Per Capital Income of $38,700

Japan, with its Gross Domestic Product of $4.52 trillion and per capita income of $36,200, (at Purchasing Power Parity), has only 2 aircrafts–

Boeing 747 – 400 – for use of the prime minister and the emperor.

The Netherland

s, with GDP of

$770.2

billion and Per Capital

Income of $42,300, has 2

South Africa has just

one presidentia

l aircraft with its GDP of $678.

6 billion and PCI

of $11,3

00, though it expects another

soon

Malaysia has one, has also ordered a second; but with its GDP of $492 billion & PCI of $16,900

Like others cited, Malaysia is ahead of Nigeria with a GDP of $450.5 billion and PCI of $2,700

10 Jets!

No.

Country GDP PCI Jet

1 Japan $4.52 trillion

$36,200 2

2 Netherlands

$770.2 billion

$42,300 2

3 England $2.32 trillion

$38,700 Nil

4 South Africa

$678.6 billion

$11,300 1

5 Malaysia $492 billion $16,900 16 Nigeria $450.5

billion$2,700 10

Today, the aviation sector is in dire straits. How does one explain that only two domestic airlines – Arik, with 23 planes, & Aero Contractors with 14 – have

larger fleets than this one kept for a few at public expense?

Over N9 billion is

believed to be spent on the

maintenance of the presidential fleet each year, while the PAF required 47 Nigerian Air Force officers,

173 airmen/airwomen and

96 civilian employees on full time call in

2012.

Nigerians, however, desperately need a

government that exists to serve the people, not a few.

Successive governments have demonstrated incompetence and abused and misused public funds. There should be minimum ethical standards and decorum

in public office.

Other developing nations like

Ghana where a former president, John Kufuor, once

disposed of a spare

presidential aircraft, retaining only one, should shame us into

prudent conduct

Jonathan has no excuse to continue keeping 10 aircraft and our under-performing legislators have no reason to keep approving new purchases or the billions of naira they appropriate for their maintenance each year.

But, ultimately, it is only when the electorate shakes off its lethargy and

demands Accountability and Responsibility from public officials that things will change for the better.

Arise O’ Compatriot

Source Nigerian jet for Malawian

President, The Punch Newspaper, July 16, 2013 by Editorial Board

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