Presidential Fleet Racks up N64.15b Despite Buhari’s Pledge to Cut Cost

The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country on Sunday night, marking his 10th medical return trips from London and 237 days of either treating or checking undisclosed ailments abroad in the last seven years.

The estimate showed that the trips already cost between N1.1 billion to N5.4 billion in sundry operational costs, including fuel, landing and parking charges.

It has been believed by the stakeholders that the President‘s extravagance is fueling the steady rise in the yearly budget of the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) – contrary to President Buhari‘s pre–2015 promises to cut the running cost of presidential jets.

Since 2016, President Buhari has been taking care of himself by religiously taking vacations. Records show that between February 5, 2016, when he took his first vacation and on Sunday when he returned, there had been a total of 10 such visits to London with the President passing 237 nights.

President Buhari took a six–day vacation in February 2016 to treat an ear infection. He left Nigeria on June 6, 2016, and returned 13 days later. On January 19, 2017, he wrote to the Senate informing them of his intention to take a 10-day vacation in the United Kingdom. He left the same day for the UK though the vacation was expected to start on January 23, 2017, and returned 51 days later.

Not up to two months after he returned from a trip to the UK, on May 8, 2017, he travelled there again for medical attention with handlers asking “Nigerians to pray for him.” He remained in the UK till August 19, 2017, spending 104 days. On September 21, 2017, he made a detour from the U.S. to UK on medical grounds. He was there for four days.

In May 8, 2018, President Buhari returned to UK for medical reasons where he spent another four days. The stay was longer in March 2021. He was there for 15 days, having “routine medical check-ups.”

In July 2021, The president went for another medical treatment which lasted two weeks. He did the same in March 2022 and stayed for 12 days. He has just returned from another 14–day ‘medical’ excursion in UK.

The President has been accused of spending too much on travel expenses, including the cost of fuel and sundry charges for his official carrier, the Nigerian Air Force 001 (NAF 001).

Findings show that each return trip on the six-hour journey to London costs approximately N58.8 million. Luton’s Charges and Condition of Use manual for 2022/23 has a breakdown of some attendant charges, including landing and parking the BBJ.

The aircraft parking charge, per minute, is estimated at £0.042 per tonne. With the BBJ weighing an average of 70 tonnes, it costs £4.233 (or N2.21 million @N521.48/£) each day, and cumulatively £1.00 million (N523.23 million) in 237 days.

Each landing is estimated to cost about £336.07 (N175.250) and cumulatively N1.75 million. Fuel, landing and parking charges account for a total of N1.11 billion.

Other sundry charges at the airport include the navigational service charge, night operation charge, police services charge, CAA Aviation security charge, new security equipment charge, ground handling changes that may be as high as £5000, engine run-up bay charge, stand de-icing charge, marshalling charge and technical wash charge, among others.

Former Commandant of the Lagos Airport in the 90s, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), said at an average cost of N1 billion to N5 billion, including crew feeding and accommodation, “it is still tolerable, except there are reasons to believe that there are officials exploiting such trips.” Ojikutu noted that the scenario did play out during Obasanjo’s administration, where an official was inflating Mr President’s travel expenses and later got fired.

Aviation enthusiast, Sunday Olumegbon, viewed the record differently. He said Buhari’s medical tourism footprints are “landmark and immoral.”

Olumegbon said that “constitutionally the president is allowed to receive medical care wherever he likes. However, this is a President that promised Nigerians in 2015 to cut the cost of the presidential fleet once he comes to power. He came to power but he did not keep his promises, instead, the cost started increasing. Interestingly, he has turned out to be the biggest beneficiary of the fleet, jetting out of the country at will. It is self-serving.”

The budget for the presidential fleet has been on the upswing in the last seven years, except for the proposed budget for 2023. Upon taking office in 2015, President Buhari ordered that the presidential fleet of 10 exotic airplanes be sold to save cost.

Two aircraft were put up for sale in 2016 but did not find buyers. However, the cost of managing the ‘depleted’ fleet continued to balloon. In 2016, PAF was awarded N3.65 billion. From N4.37 billion in 2017, its vote rose to N7.26 billion in 2018.

The 2019 budget provided N7.3 billion as fleet maintenance cost and jumped to N8.5 billion in 2020. In 2021 and 2022, the Federal Government budgeted N25 billion for the fleet. For next year, the PAF has been awarded a reduced N8.07 billion.

Olumegbo said further, “worst is that what has the President done to replicate in Abuja, Lagos or Daura, the type of hospitals he visits in London at our expense? Nothing. And in seven years, the only thing that has improved in this country is his health. That is the most selfish of any President. “Note that his salary as president in eight years cannot foot the bills he has racked on receiving treatment in London. But he and his handlers have not seen any lesson in that. I think it is a big shame.”

In 2017, the Presidency defended the retention of the aircraft in UK, citing national security and prestige accorded world leaders when they travel abroad. It also denied that the parking charge cost £4,000.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, ‎said: “there is no world leader who travels abroad and is left without plans for immediate return or possible evacuation.”

The presidency has stated that the idling capacity of the presidential aircraft is in tandem with the standard operating procedure and international protocol around foreign trips by heads of state globally.

They added that the country’s armed forces, represented by the Nigeria Air Force, could not abandon the Commander-in-Chief in whichever circumstance he is in that country.

“For the avoidance of doubt, this President is not the first to have a presidential aircraft standing by for him, as he will certainly not be the last. All past heads of this country have had this privilege, and the part that surprises the most is that leaders who in the past travelled with three Nigerian aircraft did not suffer this trenchant criticism,” the Presidency noted.

The statement noted that “aircraft conveying heads of state all over the world usually enjoy waivers even where payments for parking are differentiated by aircraft categories. “We have been assured that where the waiver is not granted, payment will not exceed £1,000, which is a quarter of the amount being peddled,” the Presidency stated then.