President Bola Tinubu on Monday, traveled to Paris, France, in Airbus A330, drawing criticisms from Nigerians.
The aircraft left the capital Abuja for Nice, according to FlightRadar24. The model was purchased last month for $100 million, according to Premium Times. It had been advertised on Aircraft24, a platform to buy and sell aircraft, according to Bloomberg.
Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the President on media and publicity, had, in a statement on Sunday night, said the President would be traveling to France, even though the purpose of the trip was not clear.
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Bloomberg reported that the president was going on a ‘work stay.’
The new aircraft prompted an outcry from Nigerians on the social media, who felt the president is distanced from the people that he governs.
Nigeria faces a cost-of-living crisis, which triggered a protest that killed 22 persons in early August, according to Amnesty International.
Security forces have cracked down on protesters, prosecuting 1135 protesters, who were demonstrating against hunger and rising inflation in Africa’s most populous nation.
About 63 percent of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The National MPI is 0.257, indicating that poor people in Nigeria experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations, NBS said.
“Over half of the population of Nigeria are multidimensionally poor and cook with dung, wood or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy. High deprivations are also apparent nationally in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing,” the NBS said in its 2022 report.
“In general, the incidence of monetary poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty across most states. In Nigeria, 40.1% of people are poor according to the 2018/19 national monetary poverty line, and 63% are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI 2022.”
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The decision to buy a presidential jet while people “are going through a horrifying economic hardship shows the insensitivity of this administration,” Peter Obi, the second runner-up to Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, said in a post, Bloomberg reported.
“It has also exposed multiple dimensions to our leadership failure and our insensitivity to the plight of the growing poor class in our midst.”
Inflation rose to a 28-year high of 34.2 percent in June in Nigeria before slowing in July to 33.4 percent. Pump prices of petrol have more than tripled since Bola Tinubu became president. A litre of petrol was sold for N1000/l at some filling stations and black markets on Monday as against less than N200/l in April 2023 – one month before Tinubu became president.
Food inflation is at over 39 percent, with prices of rice, beans, bread and other staples very high.
Muda Yusuf, an economist and chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, said taming the surging food prices in the country is “an emergency issue that requires a short-term emergency solution.”
Nigeria’s food production is being hampered by worsening insecurity and climate change, making it even harder for farmers to grow more food for the people.
The government seems helpless. An analyst, Ike Ibeabuchi, said that purchasing a private jet at “a point when Nigerians are in poverty is unfortunate and shows the president is not perturbed by the challenges of the people.”
Florunsho Olayemi, chief executive officer at Sammorf Agro-Consult Limited, said the country has been unable to grow more food owing to worsening insecurity that has created a shortfall in major staples Nigerians consume.
Cost of governance under President Tinubu has not reduced significantly, with Nigeria’s multiple Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Nigeria has 943 MDAs and 541 state-owned corporations, according to Ben Akabueze, former director-general, Budget Office of the Federation.
Tinubu, in June, commissioned a N21 billion Vice President’s house in Abuja to the amazement of Nigerians.
“We thought that the Orosanye Report would be implemented, but that hasn’t happened. Secondly, the VP house was placed higher than critical issues of health and education by this administration, which is quite unfortunate,” Ibeabuchi further said.
With additional reports by Bloomberg
