Honest use of private jets

Most of the current news in Nigeria concerns how the poor and downtrodden are crying in pain, but it now appears as if the rich are also set to cry. The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has alerted that 62 private jets operating in the country have unknown status. Only 86 were cleared to fly during the recent verification exercise undertaken between June and August this year. Twenty-nine private jets were found to be liable for payment of customs duty and given until the end of October to rectify their payments. 

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) have been directed to ground all offenders who allegedly include general overseers of top Pentecostal Churches, CEOs of Teir-1 banks, Chairmen of indigenous “oil services companies” and of course financial fraudsters! Collectively they owe at least N30 billion in various fees and the federal government has directed that the money must be recovered. 

The statement by the NCS is patently absurd and suggests that the agency doesn’t know its job. Ordinarily, it sounds mind-boggling that aircraft were registered or given the freedom to operate without their owners having paid the statutory duties, but then this is Nigeria where life thrives on the irrational. Regulatory authorities have come to accept, as a way of life, the abrogation of the due order by the criminally wealthy, ostentatious and powerful elite who make the country’s laws look as if they don’t apply to them. How did the owners of the private jets in question evade duties in the first place? How were they able to violate the country’s laws with impunity? 

It is distressing that a group of Nigerians have been living a life of luxury at the expense of the country’s laws, flaunting wealth with impunity.  In the “good old days,” small aircraft were known as “Business Jets” because they were used to shuttle between business meetings where the expected profit from the enterprise would cover the cost of operating the aircraft. In Nigeria, private jets are used mainly for ego tripping and the most frivolous of purposes.

Controversial Islamic Cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi condemned political office holders who hired private jets to attend the wedding ceremony of the President’s son, Yusuf Buhari.  Gumi lamented the fact that Nigerians are in captivity in the bush, hunger is everywhere, people are facing all sorts of problems, yet politicians spend public money on hiring private jets to social functions.  Indeed it borders on wickedness and ungodliness for public officials to fly by private jet in a land where poverty is written on practically every face. 

Contrastingly, US Billionaire Warren Buffet who owns the largest plane manufacturing company in America flies economy class on commercial airlines. Bill Gates doesn’t own a plane and when he came to Nigeria with his wife, they both flew economy class on a commercial airline! Nobody should expect this kind of self-conscious humility from Nigeria’s billionaire class who basically make their money by continuously fleecing government or unsuspecting citizens.

In 2000, Nigeria had 20 private jets belonging to the Presidency, NNPC, Shell and a few individuals. This number increased exponentially as corruption flourished and by 2019, there were reportedly over 200 private jets in Nigeria. Our airports are now littered with small jet aircraft parked in the sun. Nigerians have pondered what exactly the money the nation is said to owe was used for apart from mansions in Dubai, Abuja, Lagos and London.

Forbes magazine claims that since 2005, Nigerians have spent $6.5 billion on such aircraft which makes us the largest market in Africa for luxury aircraft. In the American counting system, one billion is 1,000 million, a trillion is 1,000 billion, and a quadrillion is 1,000 trillion. Since   naira exchanges at over N500 to $1, each two billion dollars is more than one quadrillion naira. Therefore the amount Nigerians have spent on private jets is over N3 quadrillion (three billion-billion naira). 

International finance institutions and countries whom Nigeria owes money and begs for debt forgiveness have taken interest in the source of money used to purchase and operate these jets. Private jets are not like cars which you can just enter and drive off to your destination. They require all sorts of permits, and pilots cannot even move them out of a hangar without paying money. The planes also require routine mandatory costly “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” Operational checks not calculated in naira! Private jets are huge liabilities which cost money even when parked idle on the tarmac. 

The NCAA is supposed to penalise owners who use their private jets for hire and reward but this is difficult to do because hiring out a private jet is like using your personal car for taxi service. Complaints by commercial flight operators that private jets have ruined the market for local first class tickets should be disregarded. 

There are about 10 times more private jets than commercial scheduled aircraft operating in Nigeria even though it costs 20 times the price of a first class ticket to travel by private jet.  The average cost of charter service ranges from $4,500 to $7,000 per hour. 

Nobody really likes to waste money but local commercial flight operations are abysmal and disgraceful to say the least. Passengers routinely find themselves stranded in cities due to flight cancellations. Others spend hours at airports waiting for flights scheduled to leave at 8.30am to finally depart at 5.30pm! While others are prevented from proceeding to onward destinations because having successfully boarded their flight and arrived at their destination, they are told that their luggage has been left behind. Although the use of small jets is environmentally degrading and socially provocative, as long as Nigeria’s commercial airlines remain in such a mess, there is no reason to criticise anybody for using a private jet as long as they can afford to pay the required fees and are spending money which they made honestly.

(This is a repeat from last week)