Nelson A.Osuala[5 October 2016]
You would recall that the current economic recession in Nigeria have led to a continued debate on whether or no the Nigerian Federal Assets should be sold off.
Recently, Pres. Buhari has also included in that list, the sale of two Presidential Jets. His reason, .. of what use are they when the country's economy is undergoing a serious upheaval.
According to our source, , President Muhammadu Buhari authorised the disposition of the presidential aircrafts, namely:
1# Falcon 7x executive jet and 2# Hawker 4000, both from the Presidential Air Fleet, PAF.
NHB gathered that the decision of Pres. Buhari to dispose these fleet of flamboyant aircrafts was in dandem with his 2015 electoral manifesto and promises to sell off many of the airplanes with the aim of generating revenue and then reduce flamboyancy even among the echelon of leadership if elected as president.
In his words: "More of these aircraft would also be sold in the coming days".
Recall that Controversy had trailed the promise in the past as to whether the president would live up to his words.
In other to affirm as well as confirm the truth of this information, our correspondence argues that the President's Senior Special Assistant on media and publicity, Mallam Grana Shehu affirmed that indeed, the president made the approval for the sale.
He added that it was part of Pres. Buhari to keep his words and campaign promises and that those 2015 electoral Promises is no exception.
Corroborating the story, the President's SSA affirms thus:
“The newspaper advertisements for the sale of two Presidential aircraft, a Falcon 7x executive jet and Hawker 4000 were duly authorised by the Presidency.
“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.
“When he campaigned to be President, the then APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari, if you recall, promised to look at the presidential air fleet with view to cutting down on waste.
“His directive to a government committee on this assignment is that he liked to see a compact and reliable aircraft for the safe airlift of the President, the Vice President and other government officials that go on special missions.
“This exercise is by no means complete.
“I am sure the Commander of the Presidential air fleet will any time from now, call you to a ceremony at which he will hand over some other aircraft to the Airforce for their operations”, Shehu explained in a statement yesterday.
Credit to Vanguard
Critical Reactions:
Is Pres.Buhari actually supposing that Nigerians will be satisfied at just the sale of the aircrafts or rather in the channelling of the revenue generated from such sale towards that which will alleviate poverty, diversify the economy and put an end to the present sufferings across the Nation?
What measures is the presidency putting in place to ensure that we are not just going to generate revenues without knowing how such can be profitably used?
After the sale of all these Federal assets, what next?
Many questions begging for answers!
Nelson A.Osuala
Is a Blogger & the Associate Editor of Negroidhaven.org
(Negriodhaven).
