‘My jet is bigger than yours’

The former head of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, one of the anti-corruption agencies the Nigerian government set up to tackle graft, Madam Farida Waziri, was so astounded by the enormity of the problem she confronted when she first took over that she advocated that people aspiring to public office should first take a sanity test to determine the state of their mental aptitude.

She was just flabbergasted by the propensity of Nigerian officials to dip their hands into the public kitty. Interestingly, Nigerian public officials are among the most pampered civil servants on earth.

A World Bank report says that 80 percent of the country’s income is used to run the machinery of government. The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, puts the figure at 70 percent and he has urged the government to prune the bloated civil service. He lamented that it was unconscionable that less than 1 percent of the population consumes so much of the nation’s resources.

The government’s response was to swiftly shoot down Lamido’s laudable suggestion. That they already consume so much of the nation’s wealth, however, has not dampened the enthusiasm of some officials to loot the treasury at will. No wonder Nigerians are no longer inflamed by reports of corruption in high and low places, it has, it would seem, become a way of life.

With abundant mineral wealth under its grounds, Nigeria is still, paradoxically, ranked as the 13th poorest nation on earth, by the UN. In the 1970s, Nigeria Airways, the national airline, had a fleet of more than 30 aircraft; today it is no more; it died many years ago.

Healthcare is equally poor, and Nigerians with the means routinely go abroad for medical treatment. The country’s educational infrastructure is also in dire condition, so much so that rich Nigerians send their children to schools in neighbouring Ghana, while the super-rich dispatch theirs to schools in the Western world. Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to pump two million or so barrels of oil every day, at US$100 a barrel.

Successive Nigerian governments have claimed to pump billions of dollars into the electricity sector (former president Obasanjo’s government said it put over US$10 billion into electricity production), but the money seems to have disappeared. Nigerians were not amused when the Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi, speaking to a delegation of South African investors who came to her office in Abuja, said: “We must resolve to jointly exorcise the evil spirit behind this darkness and allow this nation take its pride of place in the comity of nations.”

While Nigerians groan under economic hardship, the government recently announced a budget that includes N2 billion (US$20 million) for the construction of the official residence of Vice-President Namadi Sambo. Also, N300 million was earmarked for the designing and construction of the residences of the President of the Senate and his deputy; the Speaker of the House of Representative and his deputy.

The government also announced that N2,2 billion has been approved by the Federal Executive Council to build a Banquet Hall at Aso Rock, the presidential palace. Many Nigerians greeted the announcement with dismay. The national publicity secretary of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spoke for many Nigerians when he said the government has beaten its own record in extravagance.

The country’s Nobel Literature laureate and long-time activist, Wole Soyinka, was shocked enough to say: “All I can say is that we have been overwhelmed into insensitivity by sheer excess. I have studied very carefully those figures and I have had to take a couple of aspirins after every paragraph, after every figure, to ask and pinch myself, are we really living in the real world? Or whether this is some kind of fantasy world, which is projected on to the pages of newspapers.”

Soyinka continued: “These are not figures plucked out of the thin air. We have listened very carefully, the sources of these figures have been cited, the reaction of the House of Representatives have been noted; but we have not heard any of these figures disputed by the relevant instruments of government. One can no longer use the words like disdain and contempt, we have moved beyond that.

We are being treated, not even like first or second or third class citizens, when we are brushed aside in this way, we are being dehumanised.” What is worrisome is that the elite continue to live like there is no tomorrow. The latest craze in town is for the rich to acquire private jets. In 1975, one Nigerian wrote a novel entitled “My Mercedes Is Bigger Than Yours”.

It was a parody of the then penchant of Nigerians to announce their wealth by buying the biggest Mercedes-Benz cars. That was 37 years ago, and like in most consumerist things in life, Nigerians have made gigantic leaps forward. So, fast forward to 2013 and welcome to the era of private jets in Nigeria. Never mind that the electricity company in Nigeria cannot supply more than four hours of electricity daily.

Never mind that Nigeria’s industries operate at between 30-40 percent of installed capacities. Never mind that unemployment is going through the roof. While the Queen of England and the British prime minister often go on British Airways chartered flights for long trips, the Nigerian Presidential Air Fleet includes two Falcon 7X jets, two Falcon 900 jets, a Gulfstream 550, one Boeing 737 BBJ (Nigerian Air Force 001 or Eagle One), a Gulfstream IVSP, a Gulfstream V, a Cessna Citation 2, and a Hawker Siddley 125-800 jet. The 10 aircraft are estimated to have cost US$390,5 million.

A Nigerian aviation expert was quoted in the Nigerian Press as saying: “In the last one year, the number of private jets bought by Nigerians has more than doubled. Nowhere in Africa, not even in South Africa, are there the number of private jets as we have now available.

“Overflying the Nigerian airspace are some of the best and, of course, most expensive private jets on offer.” And it is not only the captains of industry that are buying these jets (in fact every captain of industry worth his salt has got one or more).

Nigerian church leaders like David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church, and Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God have also joined the jet age. Their ranks were recently swelled when it was announced that Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor had received a birthday gift of a Bombardier jet! -NewAfrican.