*NLC, Femi Falana, Ozekhome, others kick
*What the law says
*Nigeria budgeted N73.3bn for presidential air fleet in 10yrs
President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Aisha Hanan Buhari, who flew in a presidential jet to Bauchi on Thursday, was on a “study tour” of Bauchi Emirate as part of her fieldwork for her ongoing Master’s programme in Photography at the same institution, it has been revealed.
The president’s daughter recently graduated with a first class in Digital Photography from Ravensbourne University, London.
The president had in October 2019, reeled out fresh rules on the schedules of foreign trips for heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) including his cabinet members. He also cancelled first and business class air tickets for some category of officials.
The measure, according to the presidency, was to reduce the cost of governance and shore up the country’s dwindling revenue.
A top government official in Bauchi State, who asked not to be named, said Ms Buhari was on a study tour in the state as part of her academic programme at the London University.
“Yes, she was in Bauchi on a personal visit. She was here for an assignment from school on Bauchi Emirate. She was received at the airport by both the wife of the Governor of Bauchi State, Hajia Aisha Bala Mohammed, and the commissioner for women affairs, Hajia Hajara Gidado.”
Ms Buhari, who completed her first degree in June 2019, was part of the university’s convocation ceremony on December 4. She then had her field work for her project in Kebbi State, where she researched into the Gwandu emirate.
NLC, Femi Falana, Ozekhome, others kick
Many Nigerians including the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, have criticised the president for “flouting his own touted policy on cutting cost of governance,” by allowing his daughter to fly the jet.
In his reaction to the development, Wabba said Nigeria would not change for good until “we change the way we do things.”
The labour leader said it is unfortunate that the president’s daughter could fly a presidential jet at a time many states have not been able to pay the new minimum wage. He said the development is not only condemnable but also demands probe.
Wabba said: “Certainly such cannot be good governance best practice. In many countries, even prime ministers use only one vehicle and probably one back-up car. Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world, but their prime minister uses only one vehicle, and in most cases you don’t see these retinue of vehicles following them. Across many jurisdictions, you don’t find what is happening here taking place there. But in every facet of development, they are better than us. So our problems are actually human-made and not acts of God.
“Our problem is not the lack of resources but we are channeling our resources to the wrong directions, and so the issue of inequality has continued to widen between the poor and the rich. That is why we cannot provide for our teeming unemployed youth, our industries are not performing because we don’t have the conducive environment to stimulate the necessary growth. Many countries actually produce what they eat but our major problem which we have continued to emphasise is the lack of good governance which borders on rule of law and cutting down the cost of governance.”
Femi Falana, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop members of his family from using aircraft in the presidential fleet.
Falana said the use of aircraft in the presidential fleet by members of the first family for private events is not backed by law.
In a statement on Sunday, Falana said there is no such practice, and that the “official policy” of the federal government “does not authorise the children of the President to use the presidential jets to attend to private social functions”.
“In fact, there is no precedent whatsoever for such privatisation of the presidency of Nigeria,” Falana added.
He said Buhari had promised to reduce the cost of maintaining aircraft in the presidential fleet, which according to him, stands at N8.5 billion in the 2020 budget.
“The so called ‘normal practice’ of using the aircraft in the presidential fleet by members of the first family to attend to private engagements is not backed by any extant law or official policy,” he added.
“In view of the foregoing, we call on President Buhari to stop the members of his family from using any of the aircraft in the presidential fleet “with a view to cutting down on waste”.
“A country that is said to be the headquarters of the greatest number of poverty stricken people in the world cannot afford to waste billions of Naira on the use of presidential aircraft and hiring of commercial jets by state governors that are owing workers several months of unpaid salaries.”
On his part, the Chairman of the Coalition of Civil Societies Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), Lanre Suraj, said the president must pay for the use of the presidential jet by his daughter. He described it as a gross abuse of office on the part of the first family.
“Even President Obama and his wife when they went on a private visit using presidential jet, they had to pay out of their pocket. In this case, it can only be tolerated if the daughter had travelled with the father while the father was on a journey to the same location at the same time. Anything outside that is an abuse of office, and the father should actually pay for that trip from his allowances,” Mr Suraj said; adding that, “We cannot afford to revert to that level of degeneracy we had experienced in the past.”
Mr Suraj said as against the president’s acclaimed Spartan lifestyle, his cousin, Mamman Daura, was once discovered to have been living in the presidential villa.
“That was equally an abuse of privilege because the villa is mainly for the president and his immediate family.”
What the Law States
According to a report by online news medium, premium times including confirmations by lawyers, the Nigerian constitution makes no clear rule on such use of the presidential jet.
“For the daughter of the president to use presidential jet on a private tour is an abuse. But as I have said, I’m not aware of any law regulating it,” rights lawyer Jiti Ogunye said.
He, however, noted that as an appurtenance of the Office of the President, there are provisions of Nigeria’s criminal law that criminalizes the use of the seal of the president or governor for anyone other than those elected into the offices.
“However, there should be protocols for such purpose. For example, will it be permissible for children of the president to be moving around with the presidential limousines or cars? That will not be permissible due to security implications and for the dignity of that office.
“You must be aware that even the presidential jet has the seal of the president on it. So does it mean the daughter should be using a facility dedicated to the president without the president on board?” Mr Ogunye said.
For senior lawyer Femi Falana, the so-called “normal practice” mentioned by Mr Adesina of using the aircraft in the presidential fleet for members of the first family to attend to private engagements is not backed by any extant law or official policy.
“Even the use of the aircraft in the presidential fleet by the Senate President, House Speaker and Chief Justice of Nigeria has not been approved by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission which is the statutory body empowered by the Constitution and the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission Act to determine the remuneration and allowances of all political office holders in Nigeria,” Mr Falana argued.
The senior advocate explained that “a country that is said to be the headquarters of the greatest number of poverty-stricken people in the world cannot afford to waste billions of Naira on the use of presidential aircraft and hiring of commercial jets by state governors that are owing workers several months of unpaid salaries.”
He argued that no official policy authorises “the children of the president to use the presidential jets to attend to private social functions.”
“In fact, there is no precedent whatsoever for such privatisation of the presidency of Nigeria. Having publicly declared that his administration would maintain “a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the President, the Vice President and other government officials that go on special missions” President Buhari is estopped from allowing members of the first family to use the jets for their private affairs,” he said.
Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, argued that by virtue of the name given to the jet, it is strictly for official duties and not frivolities.
“Now tell me, what official function is the president’s daughter using the jet for. I don’t know if the girl captured with the jet is now an official working with government without the notice of Nigerians. She’s not a staff and this is simply an abuse of office to be cruising with the country’s official jet,” he said.
For Chidi Odinkalu, a lawyer and former Chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Buhari administration has been acting outside the lines of integrity.
“For an administration that sold itself on a ticket of integrity, these guys are acting entitled to the point of criminality,” Mr Odinkalu said, adding that the government should apologise to Nigerians for the action.
Presidency justifies use
When asked for his reaction to the development in a telephone interview, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said he could not hear this reporter clearly on the phone and suggested a text message was sent. However, hours after the message was sent, Mr Adesina failed to reply and never picked his phone again.
On his part, Mr. Adesina’s counterpart, Garba Shehu, initially said he was unaware of the development and so could not comment until Monday, January 12. He has since told other media houses that Ms Buhari, like any other member of the president’s family, is entitled to the use of the presidential jet.
He was quoted by Punch newspaper to have said; “It’s true that a member of the First Family was flown to Bauchi yesterday on a mission duly authorised. It wasn’t an impromptu or improper trip because it followed normal procedure. The Presidency informed the National Security Adviser of the mission who in turn informed the Commander of the Presidential Air Fleet.”
High cost of maintaining Presidential Fleet
In his 2020 budget, President Buhari proposed to spend a total of N1.492 billion on the upgrading of some of the aircraft in the Presidential Air Fleet. The sum, according to the budget, is apart from other proposals for the overhaul, maintenance and running cost of the fleet.
As captured under the budget of the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Presidential Air Fleet is expected to gulp about N8 billion in 2020.
The allocation contains what is termed mandatory upgrade and installation of live TV, compliance with mandatory upgrade and installation of Internet service, provision of aviation fuel and lubricants, among others.
The president had in the past complained of the high cost of maintaining the fleet, and planned to sell off some of the aircraft but the idea seemed to have been jettisoned. He, however, donated two of the aircraft in the fleet to the Nigerian Air Force.
Nigeria budgeted N73.3bn for presidential air fleet in 10 years
Seventy-three billion, three hundred million naira. That is how much Nigeria has budgeted for the presidential air fleet from 2011 to 2020.
According to budget documents analysed by TheCable, the allocation for the ‘presidential air fleet’ as captured under the office of the national security adviser (ONSA) comprises a recurrent and capital expenditure of N35.9 billion and 37.4 billion respectively.
Besides the personnel cost covered in the budget over the years, some other items under it include utilities, materials and supplies, maintenance services, training, financial charges such as insurance among others.
On Friday, it was first reported that one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughters flew to Bauchi state in a presidential jet for a private function.
The action drew criticism from many Nigerians who lamented the cost implication of such a trip. Femi Falana, senior lawyer, said it has no precedent in Nigeria’s history.
But a presidential spokesman defended the action. Garba Shehu said it is “normal practice” for members of the president’s family to use the aircraft in the fleet for their private engagements — a claim Falana faulted.
TheCable could not immediately confirm the current number of the jets in the presidential fleet which stood at 10 as of 2015.
Buhari had even promised to sell two of the jets to save cost.
A look at the budgetary allocations for the presidential aircraft showed that it averaged N7 billion in the last 10 years.
The highest that has been allocated for the fleet was N18 billion — under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan — while the least was N3.54 billion, also under Jonathan.
Below is a breakdown of the budgetary allocations for the presidential air fleet from 2011 to 2020.
S/N YEAR AMOUNT
1 2011 N17.98bn
2 2012 N3.54bn
3 2013 N7.5bn
4 2014 N7.97bn
5 2015 N5.19bn
6 2016 N3.6bn
7 2017 N4.37bn
8 2018 N7.26bn
9 2019 N7.297bn
10 2020 N8.51bn
