Amid dwindling revenues occasioned mainly by falling oil prices on the international market which have drastically affected remittances to the Federation Account, it is ironic that some state governors are seen embarking on expenditures that do not reflect the reality of the situation.
As reported in Daily Trust last week, one of such profligate expenditures is the purchase and maintenance of private jets by many governors for their exclusive use. And even where they do not own private jets, they spend huge sums running into billions of naira annually hiring them from the coffers of their states. This is not only imprudent, but an indication of gross insensitivity and lack of accountability on the part of such governors.
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Apart from the prohibitive cost of purchasing or leasing one, there are mandatory maintenance costs, crew cost and parking fees to consider in running a private jet. Ownership of a private jet bought and maintained at great public cost does not in any way benefit a state. It is mostly used by the governor and his family for purposes which do not in any way help the cause of the common man.
The justification often given by the governors that due to the unreliability of air travel in the country they need to have a ready means of transportation at their disposal in order to meet their numerous and sometimes sudden official visits around the country is unacceptable. In any case, reports have shown that some governors make trips that are unrelated to activities around governance. In fact, some of them travel so often using these private jets that they do not know what is happening in their states, just as they are not available to tackle them. The sad part of this development is that the cost of running the private jets is drawn from the coffers of the state, a development which negatively affects payment of salaries and provision of social amenities and infrastructure.
We note that among the states where governors are maintaining private jets are those whose sources of alternative revenue outside of the Federation Account can hardly cover their expenditure. These same governors complain all the time of dwindling allocation without looking for genuine ways to cut the cost of governance. And even when they do, they come up with things like paying only a percentage of salaries or in some instances, not paying at all, sacking of workers and grounding all developmental projects while still maintaining the extravagant lifestyle of a retinue of aides and flying private jets.
This cannot continue. For states to survive these hard times, wastage must stop and the chief executive officers must take the lead on it. After all, charity, they say, begins at home.
Governors must review their priorities in favour of prudent management of scarce resources. They should cut costs on needless overheads which they retain mainly for prestigious purposes. They need to embark on lifestyle changes and do away with anything that does not benefit the people who elected them into office.
As frequent travels drain the resources of their states, they should consider attending some meetings virtually and only leave their states when it is absolutely necessary, and even at that, with a much-reduced retinue of aides. As states across Nigeria today are battling one issue or another, it is time for the governors to remain at home and provide the necessary leadership.
It bears reminding that governors are elected to serve the people, not the other way round. In this they are bound by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria regarding service and protection of the people who elected them and which they swore to uphold.
We believe that the provisions of the office they occupy are adequate enough for whatever comfort and convenience they require in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities without their having to overreach those provisions through needless expenditures.
We, therefore, call on governors who maintain such private jets to immediately sell them off and deploy the funds for better public purposes as further retention of the jets will continue to be counterproductive to such states.
