nigerian jet for malawian president
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Nigerian Jet for Malawian President. Malawi’s President, Joyce Banda , sold her cash-strapped country’s only presidential jet to save costs. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had withdrawn most aid in response to the purchase in 2009 of a presidential jet by Banda’s predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, and his abandonment of an IMF-dictated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Withdrawn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
Pictures from, www.flickr.com. Google Images