Nigerian president sells jets amid economic crisis
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (C) arrives at the Presidential Villa in Abuja to mark Nigeria’s 56 independence anniversary on October 1, 2016. (Photo: AFP)
ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP) — Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is selling two of his jets in a bid to cut costs as the West African country battles to overcome a recession.
In a statement released late on Tuesday, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said that Buhari is reducing the number of planes in his fleet to trim expenses.
“The newspaper advertisements for the sale of two presidential aircraft, a Falcon 7x executive jet and Hawker 4000 were duly authorised by the presidency,” Shehu said.
“This is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircraft in the presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste.”
The presidency has advertised the sale of the two jets this week in local newspapers, with photos of the planes revealing luxurious interiors with leather seats.
Buhari’s administration regularly accuses the previous administration of stealing “mind-boggling” sums of state money, blaming the former regime for the severe economic crisis in the country.
Nigeria has passed an expansive budget to stimulate growth and develop infrastructure, but experts say Buhari has been unable to secure enough financing to kickstart a quick recovery.
“Nigeria still lacks a decisive plan to combat the recession,” Eurasia Group, a political risk consultant company, said in a note earlier this week.
“Government revenues will remain weak in 2016 due to both weak tax receipts as businesses struggle amid the recession and lower oil revenues as pipeline attacks hit production.”
Rebels in Nigeria’s southern delta have been attacking oil infrastructure since the beginning of the year as they fight for greater regional autonomy and a bigger share of the country’s oil revenues.
kudos your excellency, mr. President on the gesture! while you’re at it use your presidential powers to obtain eminent domain and seize all the high-end mercedes and land-cruisers obatained by ill-gotten gains and embezzlement of all those former and current military obliarchs(like yourself ,,,,, no pun intended) and sell them, as a democratic president of a democratically recognized country, you can also use your diplomatic powers and go after all those bank accounts mentioned in the panama papers(by god only hope none belongs to you), swiss, singapore, dubai, luxembourg, IN THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM IN LONDON UK, etc. do everything in your powers sir to allocate all those TRILLIONS(yes trillions maybe even more) of dollars that is sta$h away in those offshore account$ in those so called FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES who are profiting and benefiting handsomely from the ROI of those monies at the expense of your majority poor population who are treated inhumanely when they migrate to some of those same said country whether legally or illegally, those monies would mean a lot and can do a lot to the economic development or to help create a safety-net in times of economic recession like the one that is affecting your country of Nigeria which is one of our ancestral homeland, so please mr. president, your excellency, go a bit further, do more leg work.
:2thumbup
Nigeria is so corrupt he would have too much leg work to do..From one corner to the next is corruption. Nigerians have a culture of trickery and dishonesty
Yes they do, but no more dan America and England who are Dee biggest thieves and even MORE corrupt, ah choo yuh ah task but we cannot leave out dem teachers and oppressors.
Boom comment@Ram Jam
@ Met ,,,,,,, I was just being strait forward and at the same time sarcastic! I wonder who they learned the trickery, corruption and dishonesty from? pull the file on the 10 most corrupt countries in the world from 10th to 1 and see whats the common denominator of them all, THE FORMER COLONIZER!
:travel
Yes white people have an influence on that part but di way di nigerian dem lock it nuh normal
Met nobody no more dishonest Dan white people, the colonizer S came in and stripped the country of everything, left them with almost nothing so, its all about survival dung yah, mi feel it from dem mi nah lie, but if yuh live here in Nigeria you will see what the economic position of some is. This way of life was taught to them as a way to survive, it’s all they were left with because there is just not any much way for them to prosper,when the money bag are led by the politicians and the elites who caters to their foreign masters who assist them in keeping the country and its citizens in poverty whenNigeria is one of the richest countries in the world by way of natural resources.
Two boom comment ram jam