In 15 months, FG spent N19 billion on presidential jets, according to the report

The PUNCH has learned that the Presidential Air Fleet’s operations and upkeep from July 2023 to September 2024 cost at least N19.43 billion.

According to our correspondent’s checks on GovSpend, a civic technology platform that monitors and evaluates Federal Government spending, the payouts for 2024 were N13.55 billion, or 66% of the fleet’s 2024 fiscal year allocations.

The majority of payments were designated as “Forex Transit Funds,” which are normally money set aside for foreign exchange needs in order to support overseas engagements and transactions.

When it comes to the Presidential Air Fleet, these monies are utilized to pay for costs associated with operations abroad, such as fuel purchases, maintenance, or foreign exchange services.

“When aircraft on the fleet are abroad, payments are often made in U.S. dollars or another foreign currency to ensure uninterrupted operations,” a government official explained.

N1.52 billion for “Presidential air fleet forex transit funds” was distributed in two installments of N846 million and N675 million in July 2023.

For the same item, N3.1 billion was paid out in three installments the next month: N388 million, N2 billion, and N713 million.

N1.26 billion was released to the Presidential Air Fleet’s naira transit account in November of that year.

The first 2024 overhead occurred in March, when N1.27 billion was distributed twice, for a total of N2.54 billion. In April, May, and July, the transit account was credited with N6.35 billion, N4.97 billion, and N210 million.

The most transactions occurred in August, when N5.60 billion was disbursed in six different installments.

The funds, including the N35 million transfer made in September, were deposited into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account even though these transactions lacked clear labels.

The transit account was credited with N5.08 billion in late April, coinciding with the President’s two-country vacation of Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.

Due to unidentified technical issues, Tinubu’s state-owned Gulfstream AeroSpace 550 Jet was unable to continue on to Saudi Arabia after arriving in the Netherlands. According to reports, he used a private plane that was chartered to continue his journey.

The President’s Boeing 737 business jet was being maintained at the time. An Airbus A330, which was acquired for $100 million in August through service-wide votes, eventually took its position.

The nearly 15-year-old plane, an ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), is “spacious and furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, customised interior and communications system,” Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, said, adding that it “will save Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly.”

With about 11 aircraft of various makes and kinds, the Presidential Air Fleet is likely one of Africa’s largest, and the latest Airbus A330 is only one of many aircraft in the fleet. It consisted of a 13-year-old Gulfstream Aerospace G550 and a 19-year-old B737-700 till August.

The BBJ cost $43 million when it was purchased under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but as it became older, it started to waste money.

In support of the acquisition of the Airbus A330, Onanuga claimed that Nigerians, not the president, should bear the expense of the new aircraft and the upkeep of the air fleet.

“It’s not President Tinubu’s plane; it belongs to the people of Nigeria, it is our property…the President did not buy a new jet; what he has is a refurbished jet – it has been used by somebody else before he got it, but it is a much newer model than the one President Buhari used.

“The one President Buhari used was bought by President Obasanjo some 20 years ago. There was a time when the President went to Saudi Arabia, and the plane developed some problems. The President had to leave the Netherlands with a chartered jet.

“Nigerians should try to prioritise the safety of the President. I’m not sure anybody wishes our president to go and crash in the air. We want his safety so that he can hand it over to whoever wants to take over from him,” Onanuga said.

According to the presidential aide, he spoke with Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Advisor, about the malfunctioning aircraft [Boeing 737 jet], and he stated that the need for a replacement plane was necessary due to the high maintenance costs.

A Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605 are all part of the president’s fixed-wing fleet.

According to reports, three of the seven fixed wings are not operational. The Office of the National Security Adviser oversees the Nigerian Air Force’s operations of the rotor-wing fleet, which consists of two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s.

Former President Buhari pledged to cut the PAF’s aircraft count to just what is absolutely required.

Three planes were listed for sale in April 2023, but no details were provided.

However, after a prospective buyer lowered their first offer from $24 million to $11 million in October 2016, attempts to sell one of the Dassault Falcon 7x and the Hawker 4000 came to a standstill.

With the exception of 2020, budgetary allotments for the fleet have been increasing since 2017.

The fleet’s budget grew from N4.37 billion in 2017 to N20.52 billion in 2024, reflecting a 37% increase in operating expenses.

The fleet’s budget increased by 66.13 percent to N7.26 billion in 2018, mostly due to a major rise in capital project funding, while recurrent cost levels remained relatively stable. The overall allocation increased somewhat to N7.30 billion in 2019 as a result of this growing tendency.

The one exception was in 2020, when the budget fell by over 7% to N6.79 billion, mostly as a result of lower overhead expenses, which reflected the effects of lockdowns and operational interruptions on the world economy.

However, the budget skyrocketed to N12.55 billion by 2021, a record 84.83 percent increase over the year before.

Each aircraft’s yearly maintenance costs in 2022 varied from $1.5 million to $4.5 million.

Appropriations for 2022, 2023, and 2024 totaled N12.48 billion, N13.07 billion, and N20.52 billion, respectively.

A foreign object damaged Vice President Kashim Shettima’s GulfStream aircraft’s cockpit windscreen during a layover at JFK Airport in New York on his way to the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa.

The Gulfstream’s manufacturers, Lee Aerospace, claim that jet windshields are made of thick, multilayered structures made of translucent acrylic and various layers of glass that are designed to survive collisions with objects weighing up to two kilograms.

But the inner layers of the windshield must have been impacted by the damage. A single windshield repair for a G550 can cost anywhere between $50,000 and $70,000 for parts and labor, while exact replacement costs might vary depending on the supplier, labor rates, and regional expenses.

In an interview with our correspondent, Olumide Ohunayo, the General Secretary of the Aviation Round Table, attributed the sharp increase in PAF allocations to the Nigerian Air Force’s “commercial use” of aircraft, the aging of some of the fleet’s aircraft, and the depreciating value of the naira.

Ohunayo said, “The cost will definitely increase over the years because for one, this issue of the naira against the dollar. As the naira keeps falling to the dollar, we will see a rise in cost because most of the costs of training crew and engineers and replacing aircraft parts are all in dollars.

“Also, some of these aircraft are not new. The older the aircraft, the higher the cost of maintenance and operation.

“Lastly, during these past years, terrorism and insecurity have increased in Nigeria, which has also affected the cost of insuring the aircraft.”

According to Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, the administration’s spending practices ran counter to Nigerians’ expectations of thrift.

“What we are getting from this administration is opposite to our expectation. We thought we would have an administration that would be frugal in spending and very meticulous at implementing its budget.

“But what we are getting is an administration that has fallen in love with profligacy; that doesn’t see anything wrong in living big amid a poverty-stricken nation.

“It is a reenactment of the Shagari administration, whereby they bought the biggest Mercedes Benz and made themselves as comfortable as possible without considering how much the masses are suffering.

“So when you look at a Vice President saying he’s not travelling [to Samoa] again because there was a splinter on the windscreen of his private aircraft. Why should that be the case?

“First and foremost, we need to be represented at such an international meeting, where we should be well represented by the first two citizens of this country.

“He abandoned that, which means we would have lost certain representation that we deserve at that forum. Two, money will have been spent on advance parties that went ahead of the Vice President. But he abandoned the journey altogether.”