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Between The Devil and The Mediterranean; A Returned Migrant’s Journey
Published
6 years agoon
By
EditorBy Sally Moske
Europe, here I come!
Jerry could finally see the end of his journey as he sat in an air-inflated boat, called a dinghy, sandwiched with 153 other hopeful migrants headed to Italy. They had come quite a distance, traveling through the desert under severe conditions. Every one of them had a story to tell, of harrowing experiences on the course of their voyage from Nigeria to Libya. Their dreams had come at a steep price, draining them of hard-earned cash, dignity and sanity. If hope were so easy to kill, they would have been robbed of that as well. But here they were, on the final leg of their passage to the land of their dreams.
This was no journey for the fainthearted. All 154 of them knew they could die in the Mediterranean. They had no life jackets, although each of them had paid smugglers N10, 000 to acquire one. They were left to their fate, conveyed by an unseaworthy dinghy that had only enough fuel to get them to their destination; a place they had never been before.
For Jerry, he had not a single kobo on him. Like the others with him, he believed that all he needed was to get into Italy and everything would be fine. He was a Nigerian, after all. If he could survive the harsh economic conditions back home, he could make it in Europe; but first, he needed to get there in one piece.
Hearts clutched, prayers whispered through parched lips, the migrants who were starved, gaunt and exhausted, looked forward to the end of their journey as the boat waded dangerously on the Mediterranean Sea.
“You look at the front, you’re not seeing anything,” Jerry recalls. “You look at the back and all you see is the sea. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life before.”
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Nigerians struggle to find themselves in Europe. Nigeria is a source, transit and destination country when it comes to human trafficking. The country chiefly adds to the $150m that is generated annually in trafficking profits between Africa and Europe. The latest Global Slavery Index (2018) Report places Nigeria as 32/167 of the countries with the highest number of slaves. The staggering number comes to 1,386,000 already trafficked.
In 2018, Nigeria was ranked the world’s poorest country. With a high level of unemployment amongst the youth, bad governance, lack of faith from the citizens in the government, fallen levels of industrialization, civil unrests, constant conflicts and other social factors, the rate of irregular migration has skyrocketed in recent times. It is not hard to understand why Nigerians would seek greener pastures elsewhere.
Thousands of hopefuls journey to Libya via the ancient sub-Saharan slave route to make it to the Mediterranean. But for most of them, their final destination would be Libya. They would never get into Europe. The coastlines of Libya are almost impossible to police, making the country a major border state. There, Nigerians and other Africans hoping to make it to Europe are beaten, starved, robbed, raped and killed. For many of the returnees lucky to come back alive and whole, their story runs in similar lines. Their expectations were nothing close to reality. If they had known that the journey would lead them through hell, they would not have embarked on it in the first place.
Jerry was a struggling laundryman in Nigeria before he left. He had been seduced by a single photo shared by a friend on Facebook who lived in Germany. The life behind the camera had enticed him, and when he reached out to said friend, he was told that he could get a lot more money in Germany than what he earned in Nigeria from the same laundry business. He was also told that the journey would take two weeks, at the most, and he would begin to live a better life. Being that the words were coming from a trusted friend who was ‘making it’ in Europe, Jerry didn’t put much thought to his decision. He simply made up his mind to leave the country. He wouldn’t be the first to leave. Many had gone before him and were now successful.
He was sold an expensive dream that unraveled as a nightmare.
“I didn’t speak to anybody,” Jerry recollects. “I was scared because my friend had input that mindset in me that if I tell somebody, that person will now become somebody that is now blocking my way from traveling.”
Often, migrants are told not to speak to anyone about their plans to leave Nigeria. This warning is laced with heavy superstitious tones. They are painted the idea that someone out there might not want them to progress and could resort to diabolical means to stop their success. Many smugglers go as far as making the migrants swear oaths of secrecy in shrines. Fear of disclosing the details of their trip makes them easy prey for the smugglers and traffickers who would eventually trade them off to slave buyers in the course of their journey.
Jerry raised N300, 000 in six months, and with the assurance that he would be aided by his friend’s connections, he set off on his trip. But he was to receive the first blow from reality at the border in Sokoto, Nigeria. There, he was told by a smuggler that the initial payment he made had ‘entered a wrong connection’ and it couldn’t take him further. He was held in Niger until he paid an extra sum of N200, 000 to the smuggler. After the payment was processed, he embarked on a 17-hour journey that took him to Agadez, an ancient city at the southern edge of the Sahara.
At Agadez, he was told that he had to make an extra payment of 5000CFA that would lead him straight to Europe. By now, Jerry was beginning to see a pattern in the manner the smugglers lied. None of them was honest enough to state that each payment made would lead to the next stop. “Everybody will end their statement with ‘you’re going to Europe,’” he recalls.
Still, he was hopeful. He facilitated the transfer to a Nigerian bank account. Jerry was then pushed onto the back of a Hilux truck with 20 other travelers, each of them given sticks to hold onto, to prevent them from falling off. They traveled for six days, and at each stop, they would be asked to disembark to relieve themselves. Jerry described the desert as rather puzzling. During the day, the sand beneath their feet was cold while the sun above was scorching. At night, the conditions flipped, with the sand burning them underneath and the weather around them freezing them almost to death.
On the course of the journey, they drove past skeletons of migrants that had gone before them, possibly killed by rebels and bandits who had robbed them. Returnees would tell you that you’re at risk of bandits in the desert who would come out from nowhere and shoot at your truck. Drivers who survived would flee the scene and leave their passengers to their fate. If rescue did not come (which is a case that’s more often than not), migrants would have to rely on each other’s urine to fight dehydration. Most of them died there in the desert. For those who were unfortunate to fall off trucks similar to the one Jerry was in, the drivers abandoned them and continued on the trip.
At the border of Libya, following the 6-day journey, Jerry and his co-travelers were put on a truck conveying farm animals, and smuggled into Qatrun. They were dropped at a connection house where they had the chance to clean up for the first time since their journey began. From there, they were taken on a journey of 6 hours to Sabha, a southwestern city in Libya, and left in another connection house. But this stopover was different from the previous one. It was named the “Land of No Mercy.” Libya’s connection houses are typically owned by Libyans but partially managed by West Africans.
Migrants were held ransom and tortured until family members back home sent cash for their release. They were electrocuted, beaten with iron pipes and given 60 seconds to call family members who would rescue them. Those whose ransom fees were not paid ended up being tortured every day, for months, until they died or someone was gracious enough to sell them off. As slaves, they worked tirelessly to pay off debts to the ones who bought them. Some would be taken away, never to be seen again. It is believed that many who are traded in this manner have their organs harvested. For the women, they are raped brutally before being sold off to ‘madams’ who would make them sex slaves, forcing them to sleep with up to ten or more men a day.
At the connection house in Sabha, Jerry was told the same old story about his money expiring over a wrong connection, and was asked to get N300, 000 that would take him directly to Europe. He was given 48 hours to get the cash. Fortunate to have his sister who was the only one aware that he was on the trip, he reached out to her and she sent the money to a disclosed Nigerian bank account. Jerry watched migrants who couldn’t meet up with their payment suffer constant torture. In his words, “These people that are beating you are not foreigners. These people are our own beloved brothers… They are Nigerians.”
He explained that they wielded guns and shot to death anyone who tried to escape from the connection house. The walls were stained with the blood of murdered migrants. Many who have been there for months had lost their minds. They appeared deranged. Some had forgotten their names and where they came from. There had no access to medical care and hardly got any food.
Taken from the connection house in Sabha after paying the fee of N300, 000, Jerry found himself in Tripoli, the capital of Libya; but the journey to get there itself had been hazardous. He was transported in a Sienna bus, turned upside down through the course of a 9-hour trip.
“When we finally got to Tripoli and they offloaded us, they had to bring us down. Our eyes were turning, with blood filling our heads. They had to blow and pour water on us.”
Their passports were taken from them and sold to people who were just coming in. They were told that they didn’t need the passports in Europe since they were going to seek asylum there.
Their journey continued as they were taken to Sabratha, which lies on the Mediterranean coast. There, they stayed for three weeks and paid an extra N100, 000 to secure spaces in the air-inflated dinghy that would carry them off to the coast of Italian waters. From the distance, Jerry said he could see the enticing nightlights from Italy each evening. After his long, harrowing journey, he was elated at the prospect of finally making it into Europe. Thus, he waited, counting the days until he got into the unseaworthy dinghy with 153 others.
They embarked on the final leg of their journey with nothing but faith. Emaciated and exhausted, barely wearing nothing, and freezing to their bones, they prayed continuously as the dinghy carried them on. The nightlights of Italy they saw from the distance at Sabratha were now gone. It was all darkness around them. They were aware that anything could happen and they would drown, and their bodies would be lost at sea. Those on the sides of the dinghy could fall off, the ones in the center were at risk of chemical burns should the fuel leak from the engine and mix with water. Still, they held on. They had come this far. There was no turning back.
Suddenly, from the distance, lights from a naval boat appeared. Their breaths were bated as the vessel approached them. The people in the boat were men from the Libyan navy police, and they had not come to rescue them, but to extort them with threats of turning them back if they didn’t give them something in return. They asked for money and phones, and when the migrants told them they had nothing on them, they demanded to have the women in the dinghy. When that didn’t work as well, Jerry and his co-travelers were diverted back to Libya, bringing an end to their struggles and dreams to see Europe.
At the shore in Zuwara, they found washed-up bodies from another rescued boat that had only 27 survivors out of 157 migrants. Persons from Jerry’s dinghy were picked to bury the dead in shallow graves. Some of the corpses had their eyes and noses missing. Others had mangled body parts. It was a disturbing sight, but a turning point for Jerry. He saw himself as one of the dead, knowing how easily he could have drowned at sea and gotten buried in a shallow, unmarked grave with his family never seeing him again.
“That was what caught my fear. I just had to tell myself, I said, ‘I’m going home,’” Jerry says, shaking his head.
However, he was discouraged by fellow migrants when he announced that he had no desire to keep on with the journey. Some of them were taking that trip the third or fourth time. For Jerry, it would be his first and last attempt to leave Nigeria via illegal means. But the journey wasn’t over for him yet. He would spend nine more months in Libya, forced by the police into hard labor at other prisons, and to bury the corpses that were daily washed ashore.
According to a report by the United Nations, an average of 6 people die crossing the Mediterranean every day, asides accidents in which boats capsize and migrants drown.
Jerry was eventually rescued and brought home, alongside thousands of Nigerian migrants taken from various deportation camps in Libya. This massive deportation back to Nigeria was carried out by the International Organization for Migration, in conjunction with the Nigerian government.
These days, Jerry works with the Patriotic Citizens Initiative, actively enlightening people on the realities of irregular migration.
“We’re not saying migration is bad. No. Migration is good. But if you must go at all, what way are you passing? Who is giving you the information? How true is the information? Can you come out of it?”
Jerry is back to his laundry business, but with a heart of contentment, having escaped the devil and the deep blue sea. His Nigerian dream today is not to leave Nigeria, but to use what he has, and all he’s learned, to make the country better in his own way.
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Mike Adenuga is Alive, Hale and Hearty, I Just Spoke with Him – Dele Momodu
Published
4 days agoon
November 20, 2024By
EricBy Eric Elezuo
Africa’s biggest philanthropist and Chairman, Globacom Group, Dr. Mike Adenuga is Alive, hale and hearty!
This has been confirmed by Chairman, Ovation Media Group, Chief Dele Momodu via his social media handles.
Following rumours, whose source is yet to be ascertained that the man, known for his quantum giving, passed away, Momodu wrote that he had just spoken with the billionaire businessman, who affirmed his health while thanking all for their concern.
“Ignore the fake news…DR MICHAEL ADENIYI AGBOLADE ISOLA ADENUGA is hale and hearty. He is right now at his desk working round the clock in support of the Nigerian economy…He just called me to thank everyone for their concern,” Dele Momodu wrote.
In addition, members of the top echelon of the group have separately confirmed that the one known as The Bull is alive and healthy.
Dr. Adenuga has remained in the forefront of many families happy with his direct financial and material gifts as well as consistent promo from his Glo brand.
Only last night, CNN celebrated 15 years of his sponsorship of the African Voices Changemakers, where he has foe a decade and half been supporting budding African entertainers to reach their professional zenith.
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A Tale of Two Emirs of Kano: Who Blinks First?
Published
6 days agoon
November 18, 2024By
EricBy Eric Elezuo
The uneasy calm that reared its ugly head in the ancient city of Kano since May 23, 2024, when Governor Yusuf Kabir sacked the sitting Emir, Aminu Ado Bayero, replacing him with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, also known as Muhammadu Sanusi II, has yet to abate as the two prominent personalities have consistently laid claim to the emirship of the emirate, and operating from different palaces in the town.
The bitter rivalry between the two royalties has caused division not only in the emirate, but the entire Kano State, and spiraling into national politics, leaving the political parties, especially the New Nigerian Peoples Party, which is the governor’s party, the Presidency, alleged to be giving backing to the immediate past governor, Umar Ganduje, who is also the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the security agencies, who receive instructions from the Presidency, taking sides.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi also known as Muhammadu Sanusi II and Aminu Ado Bayero are the parties embroiled in the bitter rivalry in a bid to outwit each other for the exalted Emir of Kano position. This was since Sanusi was reinstated as the 16th Emir, having been dethroned and exiled on March 9, 2020 by the former administration of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
Sources close the two notable figures, and the palace told The Boss that it is not unlikely that both men are being supported by powerful entities.
“While Sanusi has the backing of the Kano State government as visibly manifested in the reinstatement process, Ado Bayero is being backed by the Federal Government of Nigeria,” one of the sources said.
The furore has consequently attracted the wrong commentaries from stakeholders within and outside the Kano Emirate, resulting in heated arguments, threats and possibly outbreak of direct and indirect confrontations. But six months into the leadership quagmire, none of the two has shifted ground, or is willing to shift ground as more and more intrigues of power play and desire for recognition continue to be the order of the day.
The ‘two emirs’, who continue to claim legitimacy, have variously been trying to outdo each other in the quest to be relevant in the scheme of things.
The rivalry between the two emirs and their loyalists has resuscitated with weddings and counter weddings.
Just this weekend, a former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Kwnakwaso hosted the wedding of his daughter, Dr. Aisha Rabiu Kwankwaso, and her husband, Fahad Dahiru Mangal, at the palace of Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, which attracted prominent national citizens including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Kashim Shettima, Waziri Adamawa Atiku Abubakar among others. Fahad is the son of Nigerian business magnate, Dahiru Mangal, founder of MaxAir, one of the country’s leading private airlines.
In what looked like a counter affair, the palace of Aminu Ado Bayero, in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state, will on December 13, 2024 hosts a double wedding involving Jibrin Barau Jibrin and Aisha Barau Jibrin, the children of the Senate Deputy President, Barau I. Jibrin, to their spouses.
Some stakeholders told The Boss that the whole thing is a case of seeking relevance and originality.
Meanwhile, former Governor Kwankwaso has blamed President Bola Tinubu for the crises that have failed to abate in the state.
While speaking at the convocation ceremony of Skyline University in Kano on Sunday, Kwankwaso accused Tinubu and the political forces from Lagos of attempting to impose their influence on Kano’s leadership, particularly in the selection of the Emir.
“Today, we can see very clearly that there are significant efforts from the Lagos axis to colonise this part of the country. Lagos wouldn’t allow us to choose even our Emir; instead, they want to impose their own Emir on Kano,” he stated.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN…
The Kano State House of Assembly, as widely speculated, repealed the 2019 Law, which was instrumental in removing Sanusi from office, and balkanise the Kano emirate into five jurisdictions.
The Assembly, in the new emirate law stipulated the sack of all the Emirs in the jurisdictions and a restoration of the old order, where only one Emir will be overseeing all of Kano.
As a result, the Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf, appended his signature on the bill, giving it the backing of the law, in the presence of the deputy governor, Aminu Abdulsalam, Speaker, Isma’il Falgore, and the SSG, Abdullahi Bichi. and thereafter, proceeded to sacking the emirs with a 48 hours ultimatum to vacate their palaces.
While the Emirs of Bichi, Rano, Karaye, and Gaya complied with the directive, the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, had gone to court to stop the process.
Both by native ordinance and law, every dethroned Emir is banished or expected to leave Kano for good. Recall that in 1965 when Muhammadu I, Sanusi’s grandfather resigned, having got wind of his possible dethronement, he abdicated to Bauchi, and never returned to Kano.
It was therefore, a surprise that on Saturday, Bayero, who was dethroned, returned to the city of Kano, and moved into a palace in Nasarawa LGA of the state; a move that proved that he has not relinquished power. While Sanusi is operating in the main palace, Bayero is operating from the Nasarawa Palace, creating two full blown emirs for one throne.
The letter reads: “The attention of our client was drawn to a video clip being shared on different social media platforms wherein you granted an interview at Emir’s Palace in Kano on Saturday, the 25th day of May 2024, in a very calm atmosphere, and without any provocation whatsoever, falsely accusing our client of using his office to kill the people of Kano State and maim their properties.
“In the clip, you were shown to be speaking in Hausa.
“Your false accusations against our client portraying his office as an appendage of a political party and a willing tool to cause chaos in Kano is false and done to damage the hard-earned reputation of our client in the eyes of the right-thinking members of the society and indeed it has succeeded in doing so.
“In all the places he has served, our client has never been accused of any wrongdoing.
“Given this illustrious background, it is inconceivable that someone would harbour the thought that our client would descend his exalted office so low as to interfere in the local tussle of the Kano Emirate.
“The wide coverage you gave your interview has caused serious embarrassment to our client and his family.
“Since the publication, our client has been receiving a barrage of telephone calls both within and outside Nigeria from friends and associates who felt disappointed in him because of the false allegation owing to the fact that it came from a person occupying the office of Deputy Governor of Kano State.
“Our client and his office take your allegations seriously and by this letter, our client is demanding that you provide irrefutable evidence to substantiate your claims.
The return of Bayero consequently prompted the governor to order his arrest.
In a counter, a federal high court in Kano ordered the state government not to enforce the Emirate Council Repeal Law 2024, and desist from from issuing Sanusi appointment letter.
STAND OF SECURITY OPERATIVES
The Kano State Police Command refused to arrest Bayero, saying he would only enforce the court order restraining the state government from dissolving five newly created Emirates in the state, and restatement of Sanusi.
The state Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Hussain Gumel, while making a broadcast, flanked by representatives of other security agencies, vowed to maintain law and order, assuring that security agencies won’t spare anyone trying to temper the peace across the state.
He said: “Let me also remind you that the position of the law is very clear as whoever, under whatever guise is found to be planning to disrupt the peace being enjoyed in the State or feel that he or she can jeopardize the existing security settings in the State will be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.
“Therefore, as the Police Command is leading other security agencies to sustain the peace and peaceful coexistence for overriding interests, miscreants should steer clear of violence in all its ramifications and should not take advantage or hijack the current situation to launch an unprovoked attack on people, property and infrastructure of the State. Any person found with such a tendency will be ruthlessly dealt with according to the law of the land
“The combined security agencies in the State have set out all machinery in place to ensure no breakdown of law and order as the safety and security of all the inhabitants in the State remain sacrosanct,” Gumel said.
NBA TAKES A STAND, URGES CAUTION
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called for caution in the legal fireworks playing out in Kano, stressing that it is deeply “deeply concerned about these developments in many ways”.
In a statement, NBA chairman in Kano, Sagir Gezawa, said it is the constitutional duty of a state assembly to legislate and once passed, it remains the prerogative of a governor to assent to such law.
“Once assented to by the governor, it has become a Law and its implementation is to be done by state apparatus and of course enforced by a competent court of law,” Gezawa said.
“It’s further within the purview of courts to interpret such law to be in tandem with other existing laws or the constitution.
“In doing so, we urge our members to act responsibly in approaching courts with competent jurisdiction.
“A court order, once given, is sacrosanct and must be obeyed.
“However, it must be noted that while the court has its own mechanism of enforcing its order, it’s not within the powers of the Nigerian Army to deploy troops to enforce court order. This is a sad reminder of the military dictatorship and must be condemned.
“Anyone found wanting or in disobedience of a court order (which is declaratory in nature) must first be proved to have been notified of the existence of the said court order by issuance of Form 48 and subsequently Form 49 notifying such person of the consequences of his or her actions.
“This is in line with the Sheriff and Civil Processes Act and Laws of the various States for enforcing court judgments.
“Engaging security apparatus without the officers of the Deputy Sherriff’s Department of the relevant court that made the order may appear to be self-help which must also be condemned.
“As an association therefore, we call on all state actors, to be mindful of their oaths of office and for the security agencies, their scope of duties so as not to make mockery of our judicial system.”
The NBA said the actions of the state actors “may breach the security and peace” in Kano and “they shall be held accountable in this life or the next,” the statement said.
But some notable personalities including former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has blamed the Bola Tinubu-led federal government for being behind the crisis in Kano.
Atiku made accusation via a statement by his spokesperson, Mr. Paul Ibe on Saturday.
“The action of the Federal Government in deploying soldiers in Kano in the tussle over the throne of the ancient city is an upset to the peace and security of the state, and also in breach of the 1999 Constitution as Amended.
“In performing their constitutional duties of law making, the Kano State House of Assembly (KSHA) passed the amended Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Bill 2024 in consonance with the provision of Section 4 of the Constitution 1999 as Amended whereas the Governor of Kano State, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf subsequently signed into law the said bill. The law therefore repealed the 2019 version which balkanized the ancient Kano Emirate into five.
“The foregoing circumstances happened within the confines of the law and in compliance with the powers conferred on the Governor as provided by Section 5(2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended; and also in consultation with the Kingmakers of Kano, reappointed Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (also known as Muhammadu Sanusi II) as the 16th Emir of Kano State and accordingly handed him a letter of appointment.
It is surprising that in the early hours of today, exactly at about 5:30 am the former Emir of Kano, His Majesty Aminu Ado Bayero backed by Federal might made their way into the Nasarawa Palace of the Kano Emirate while the reappointed Emir, Muhammadu Sanusi II was at the Gidan Dabo, which is the main residence of the Emir of Kano.
“In this wise, the former Emir could not have made his way into the Nasarawa Palace without the support of the Federal Government having done so with the support of the Army and other security personnel in his company. The deployment of soldiers in extra constitutional matters such as this undermines the integrity of the Nigerian military.
“We need to remind the Tinubu administration that Kano State is known for peace and harmony spanning thousands of years and any attempt to destablise the peace of the Land of Commerce shall be resisted. Recall that Muhammadu Sanusi II was dethroned on 9th March, 2020 dethroned, Kano forged on in peace without any fracas.
“We wish to state unequivocally that if for any reason, law and order breaks down in Kano State, particularly Kano Municipal, the Federal Government should be held responsible as the act of providing security cover to the former Emir, Aminu Ado Bayero to come back to Kano is an invitation to anarchy,” he said.
In the same vein, the Council of Ulamas, has President Bola Tinubu against plunging Kano into chaos. The group said, the crisis, if not well managed, could escalate and degenerate into chaos.
With the state backing the reinstatement of Sanusi, the path looks smooth for Muhammadu Sanusi II to repossess the emirship of Kano, but all will depend on how the politics of superiority is played in the coming days.
While Tinubu watches without lifting a finger of settlement, the ancient city of Kano, like Rivers State, is slowly burning down.
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How FG Spent N19bn on Presidential Planes in 15 Months – Report
Published
2 weeks agoon
November 12, 2024By
EricAt least N19.43 billion has reportedly been spent on the maintenance and operations of the Presidential Air Fleet from July 2023 to September 2024.
According to GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal government’s spending, showed that for 2024, the payouts amounted to N13.55billion, representing 66 per cent of the allocations for the fleet in the 2024 fiscal year.
Most disbursements were labeled ‘Forex Transit Funds,’ typically funds allocated for foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international transactions and engagements.
In the context of the Presidential Air Fleet, such funds are used to cover expenses related to operations outside the country, including fuel purchases, maintenance or services in foreign currencies.
“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.
In July 2023, N1.52bn was disbursed in two tranches of N846m and N675m for ‘Presidential air fleet forex transit funds.’
The following month, N3.1bn was disbursed in three tranches of N388m, N2bn, and N713m for the same item.
In November of that year, N1.26bn was released to the Presidential Air Fleet Naira transit account.
The first overhead for 2024 came in March, where N1.27bn were disbursed twice, amounting to N2.54bn. The transit account received N6.35bn in April, N4.97bn in May and N210m in July.
August saw the highest frequency of transactions, with N5.60bn released in six separate disbursements.
Although these transactions were not clearly labeled, the monies were paid into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account, including the N35m transfer made in September.
In late April, the transit account received N5.08bn; this came around the same time the President was on a two-nation tour to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
Although Tinubu arrived in the Netherlands in a state-owned Gulfstream AeroSpace 550 Jet, the aircraft could not proceed to Saudi Arabia due to unspecified technical problems. He reportedly continued his journey on a chartered private plane.
At the time, the President’s Boeing 737 business jet was undergoing maintenance. It was later replaced with an Airbus A330 purchased for $100m in August through service-wide votes.
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.”
The new Airbus A330 is just one of several aircraft currently on the Presidential Air Fleet, arguably one of Africa’s largest, with around 11 aircraft of various makes and models. Until August, it comprised the 19-year-old B737-700 and a 13-year-old Gulfstream Aerospace G550.
The BBJ was acquired during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo at $43m but became a money guzzler as it aged.
Onanuga, defending the purchase of Airbus A330, argued that the new Airbus 330 aircraft and the costs of maintaining the air fleet were not for the president but in the interest of Nigerians.
“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.
The presidential aide said he discussed with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, on the faulty plane [Boeing 737 jet] and he said the maintenance costs were excessive because of the age of the aircraft, hence the need for another plane.
The presidential fixed-wing fleet includes a Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605.
Three of the seven fixed-wings are reportedly unserviceable. Meanwhile, the rotor-wing fleet includes two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s, all operated by the Nigerian Air Force but supervised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
Former President Buhari promised to reduce the number of aircraft in the PAF to the absolute necessary.
In April 2023, three jets were put up for sale, but there were no specifics on which.
However, efforts to sell one of the Dassault Falcon 7x and the Hawker 4000 in October 2016 stalled when a potential buyer reduced their initial offer from $24m to $11m.
Since 2017, budgetary allocations for the fleet have shown a growing trend, with one exception in 2020.
The allocation for the fleet increased from N4.37bn in 2017 to N20.52bn in 2024, showing a 370 per cent rise in running costs.
In 2018, the fleet’s budget rose significantly by 66.13 per cent to N7.26bn, driven by a substantial increase in capital project allocations while maintaining similar levels for recurrent costs. This upward trajectory continued into 2019, slightly increasing the total allocation to N7.30bn.
The exception came in 2020, when the budget dropped by nearly seven per cent to N6.79bn, primarily due to decreased overhead costs, a reflection of the global economic impacts of lockdowns and disruptions in operations.
By 2021, however, the budget surged dramatically to N12.55bn—a record increase of 84.83 per cent from the previous year.
In 2022, maintenance expenses for each aircraft ranged from $1.5m to $4.5m annually.
The 2022, 2023 and 2024 appropriation acts earmarked N12.48bn, N13.07bn and N20.52bn respectively.
On his way to the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa, a foreign object damaged the cockpit windscreen of Vice President Kashim Shettima’s GulfStream aircraft during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York.
According to Lee Aerospace, manufacturers of the Gulfstream, jet windshields consist of thick multilayered structures of varying layers of glass and transparent acrylic built to withstand collision with a 2kg object.
However, damage to the windshield must have affected its inner layers. While specific prices for replacement can vary based on supplier, labour rates and regional costs, estimates suggest that a single windshield replacement for a G550 can range from $50,000 to $70,000 for part and labour costs.
In an interview with our correspondent, the General Secretary of the Aviation Round Table, Olumide Ohunayo, blamed the meteoric rise in the allocations for the PAF on the age of some of the aircraft in the fleet and declining value of the naira as well as the “commercial use” of aircraft by the Nigerian Air Force.
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.”
For his part, the Executive Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, argued that the administration’s spending habits were opposite to Nigerians’ expectations of frugality.
“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.”
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