Is President Muhammadu Buhari really fighting corruption or encouraging it? His continued retention to power when has been incapable of performing his responsibility is ironic. He has been in London for over 45 days, for medical check up, which off course says a lot about our healthcare system, that his administration promised to make better.
The amount of money air force one keeps gulping
by laying fallow in London is staggering; a minimum of a thousand pounds is the
fee, yet the defence from the presidential aid is shocking.
That the president is entitled to the
nations resources does not mean he’s at liberty to squander because he’s
opportune to do a job he’s not the only capable of doing. The parked Air Force
One is costing the nation millions, but the Presidency said in a statement by
the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba
Shehu, that the criticism, “mostly on social media”, is as result of lack of an
understanding of protocols.
“It is important to state that for
reasons of protocol, national security, diplomacy and prestige, there is no
world leader who travels abroad and is left without plans for immediate return
or possible evacuation,”
“From
an operational point of view, this country’s Armed Forces as represented by the
Nigeria Air Force are not to abandon their Commander-In-Chief in whichever
circumstance he is. This is a standard operating procedure.”
He
continued is defense that “Aircraft conveying heads of state all over the world
usually enjoy waivers even where payments for parking are differentiated by
aircraft categories,”
“For the avoidance of doubt, this President is
not the first to have a presidential aircraft standing by for him, as he will
certainly not be the last,” the Presidency said.
“All
past Heads of this country have had this privilege, and the part that surprises
the most is that leaders who in the past travelled with three Nigerian aircraft
did not suffer this trenchant criticism.”
While his defense looks valid what he
forgot to mention was the head of state that has parked Air Force One for over
a month in another country, he continued his defense enumerating other achievements
of this administration.
“This
is a government that is constructing the Second Niger Bridge, the Mambila Power
Plant, the East-West and the North-South standard gauge railway lines,” it
added.
“We
are a government that has saved this country an annual loss of two trillion
naira from fraudulent petroleum subsidy schemes by influential citizens and
their children, and rid the public service of about 50,000 ghost workers.”
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