(PRESS STATEMENT)
A pro-democracy group, The Democratic Front, says the controversy trailing the acquisition of an air plane to service the office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as unwarranted and unnecessary.
Mallam Danjuma Muhammad, Chairman and Chief Wale Adedayo, Secretary of the group who made the observation in a statement it issued, said that the controversy and condemnation following the acquisition was an unnecessary outrage adding that the opposition expressed so for were heavily tainted, biased and short sighted.
Daring to hit the nail on its head, the TDF said it wishes to acknowledge the utmost importance to make public our position on the unwarranted outrage and bias opinion by the opposition in Nigeria, with regard to the recent purchase of a new Airbus A 330, to replace the 19 year-old Boeing BBJ 737-700 by the Federal Government, in the bid to facilitate the official trips of the President, both within and outside Nigeria.
The group which conducted a simple background check revealed that all the 15 planes in the presidential fleet that the APC government inherited in 2015, were problematic, obsolete and costly to maintain, due to their years of production and modern innovations needs in aviation technology.
The statement read: “The costs for maintaining some of the planes were so prohibitive, exorbitant and constituted a drain in the hard earned resources of the government, which informed the decision by former President Muhammadu Buhari to reduce the fleet to 10 in order to reduce the cost of maintenance.
“We also gathered that the BGV Air Force One has repeatedly shown incapacitation to fly the President on crucial official itineraries, leaving no option other than resorting to chattered flights or commercial flights for the President’s official trips. This, we should all agree, constitutes a security risk and could cause embarrassment for the nation.
“In every country in the world, the operations of the presidential fleet is the prerogative of the National Security Adviser, and the ONSA has advised on the need to replace the Air Force One plane with a more recent brand. Nigeria can not afford to throw caution to the winds by exposing her number one citizen to the danger of avoidable air crash.
It should be clearly comprehended that the ‘new’ Airbus A 300 is a national asset with the expectation that it will provide a future benefit. Like the others in the presidential fleet, the Airbus A330 is meant to serve every Nigerian president, not President Bola Tinubu alone.
“Interestingly, the TDF discovers also that the new plane was bought far below the original market price, and it is fitted with modern facilities for fuel economy and cheaper cost of maintenance that will save the nation hundreds of millions of dollars. This reality further reinforces the claim by the government that the main reasons for the purchase of the new Airbus A330 are cost effectiveness and safety.
Similarly, the plane’s elaborate configuration for VIPs makes it a more economical and safer means of transportation for the president and his entourage.
Indeed, we see the neutrality and selflessness of President Bola Tinubu in the purchase of the new Airbus A 330 from the undebatable fact that the request to buy the new plane was propelled by a resolution of the National Assembly in June this year.
We therefore condemn the cheap attempt by the opposition to stir unwarranted controversy around the acquisition of A330 Airbus by government.
It is even more irresponsible for the opposition to wrongly insinuate that the decision to buy the new plane was an act of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, when in actual fact, the Airbus A330 was acquired to reduce the burden of fuelling and maintenance funded on the lean resources of the state.
Many countries like Poland, Gabon, Congo (DRC), Burundi, Brazil, Venezuela, Pakistan, Iran, Malawi etc, have lost their Presidents to air crashes, for not being timely proactive to attend to the demands for maintaining their presidential planes. Nigeria must avoid their costly inactions.
