The President’s Lau Lau Spending​

Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into office, his economic policies have worsened the cost and standard of living of Nigerians. While the president’s rhetoric suggest he understands the sacrifices Nigerians are making, his lifestyle and the excesses of those around him, suggest otherwise. 

On Monday, 19 August 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu left Abuja for France on a new presidential jet. The Airbus A330 was the newest addition to the presidential fleet, which had eleven jets. According to the president’s special adviser on information, Bayo Onanuga, ‘the new plane is spacious and is furnished with the state-of-the-art avionics, customized interior and communications system.’ According to Punch, the jet features a bedroom, office space, a conference room, and a dining room. At the rear, it has airline-style first-class and economy seating. 

Premium Times and Punch reported that the presidential jet was purchased for over $100 million and that the deal was brokered by L & L International LLC, an aviation firm based in Miami, in the US. The Tinubu administration, however, did not reveal how much the plane cost. In fact, for a long time, the government was not forthcoming with information about the jet—that is, until it was seized by Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd. Earlier in August, the Chinese firm seized the jet in France following a court order from a Paris judicial court after a bilateral agreement with Ogun State had gone sour. (In 2010, the Chinese company and the Ogun State government entered into a framework agreement on the establishment of Fucheng Industrial Park in Ogun State as a free trade but Ogun State terminated the agreement in 2016.) It was the seizure and subsequent release of the jet that revealed details of its $100 million price point. 

News of the purchase of the presidential jet sparked outrage from many Nigerians, especially on social media. For such Nigerians, it wasn’t just about the lack of transparency in the purchase of the jet but the seeming disregard of the economic crises many Nigerians are going through. The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, criticised the purchase of the jet in a social media post. ‘Paying as much as $100 million for a Presidential jet for a country that is the poverty capital of the world and has more out-of-school children with over 40% food inflation is the height of concern for the people’s feelings,’ Obi wrote...