FG spent N19bn on presidential planes in 15 months – Report

Between July 2023 and September 2024, at least N19.43 billion was spent on the Presidential Air Fleet's operations and maintenance.

According to our correspondent's checks on GovSpend, a civic technology platform that monitors and evaluates Federal Government spending, the payouts for 2024 totalled N13.55 billion, or 66% of the fleet's 2024 fiscal year appropriations.

The majority of payments were designated as "Forex Transit Funds," which are normally money set aside for foreign exchange needs in order to support overseas engagements and transactions.

When it comes to the Presidential Air Fleet, these monies are utilised to pay for costs associated with operations abroad, such as fuel purchases, maintenance, or foreign exchange services.

"When the fleet's planes are overseas, payments are frequently made in U.S. dollars or another foreign currency to ensure uninterrupted operations,” a government official explained.

In July 2023, N1.52bn was disbursed in two tranches of N846m and N675m for ‘Presidential air fleet forex transit funds.’

The following month, N3.1bn was disbursed in three tranches of N388m, N2bn, and N713m for the same item.

In November of that year, N1.26bn was released to the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account.

The first overhead for 2024 came in March, where N1.27bn were disbursed twice, amounting to N2.54bn. The transit account received N6.35bn in April, N4.97bn in May and N210m in July.

August saw the highest frequency of transactions, with N5.60bn released in six separate disbursements.
The funds, including the N35 million transfer made in September, were deposited into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account even though these transactions lacked clear labels.

The transit account was credited with N5.08 billion in late April, coinciding with the President's two-country vacation of Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.

Due to unidentified technical issues, Tinubu's state-owned Gulfstream AeroSpace 550 Jet was unable to continue on to Saudi Arabia after arriving in the Netherlands. According to reports, he used a private plane that was chartered to continue his journey.

The President's Boeing 737 business jet was being maintained at the time. An Airbus A330, which was acquired for $100 million in August through service-wide votes, eventually took its position.

Tinubu's Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, stated that the nearly 15-year-old aircraft, an ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), is "spacious and furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, customised interior, and communications system," and that it "will save Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly."

With about 11 aircraft of various makes and kinds, the Presidential Air Fleet is likely one of Africa's largest, and the latest Airbus A330 is only one of many aircraft in the fleet. It consisted of a 13-year-old Gulfstream Aerospace G550 and a 19-year-old B737-700 till August.

The BBJ cost $43 million when it was purchased under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but as it became older, it started to waste money.

In support of the acquisition of the Airbus A330, Onanuga contended that the new Airbus 330 aircraft and the costs of maintaining the air fleet were not for the president but in the interest of Nigerians.

“It’s not President Tinubu’s plane; it belongs to the people of Nigeria, it is our property…the President did not buy a new jet; what he has is a refurbished jet – it has been used by somebody else before he got it, but it is a much newer model than the one President Buhari used.

“The one President Buhari used was bought by President Obasanjo some 20 years ago. There was a time when the President went to Saudi Arabia, and the plane developed some problems. The President had to leave the Netherlands with a chartered jet.

"Nigerians should make every effort to put the president's safety first. Nobody wants our president to go and crash in the sky, I think. In order for him to pass it on to whoever wishes to succeed him, we want him secure," Onanuga stated.

According to the presidential aide, he spoke with Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Advisor, about the malfunctioning aircraft [Boeing 737 jet], and he stated that the need for a replacement plane was necessary due to the high maintenance costs.

A Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605 are all part of the president's fixed-wing fleet.

According to reports, three of the seven fixed wings are not operational. The Office of the National Security Adviser oversees the Nigerian Air Force's operations of the rotor-wing fleet, which consists of two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s.

Former President Buhari pledged to cut the PAF's aircraft count to just what is absolutely required.

Three planes were listed for sale in April 2023, but no details were provided.

However, after a prospective buyer lowered their first offer from $24 million to $11 million in October 2016, attempts to sell one of the Dassault Falcon 7x and the Hawker 4000 came to a standstill.

With the exception of 2020, budgetary allotments for the fleet have been increasing since 2017.

The fleet's budget was boosted from N4.37bn in 2017 to N20.52bn in 2024, showing a 370 per cent rise in running costs.

In 2018, the fleet’s budget rose significantly by 66.13 per cent to N7.26bn, driven by a substantial increase in capital project allocations while maintaining similar levels for recurrent costs. This upward trajectory continued into 2019, slightly increasing the total allocation to N7.30bn.
The one exception was in 2020, when the budget fell by over 7% to N6.79 billion, mostly as a result of lower overhead expenses, which reflected the effects of lockdowns and operational interruptions on the world economy.

However, the budget skyrocketed to N12.55 billion by 2021, a record 84.83 percent increase over the year before.

Each aircraft's yearly maintenance costs in 2022 varied from $1.5 million to $4.5 million.

Appropriations for 2022, 2023, and 2024 totalled N12.48 billion, N13.07 billion, and N20.52 billion, respectively.

A foreign object damaged Vice President Kashim Shettima's GulfStream aircraft's cockpit windscreen during a layover at JFK Airport in New York on his way to the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa.