Opinion
Lavishness In A Season Of Want
As the generality of Nigerians continue to grill under harsh economic conditions, officials of the federal government appear focused at extracting utmost official entittlements to the point of extravagance. This is notwithstanding Nigeria’s financial constraints and the public out-cries that recently led to nation-wide protests and demands for better governance. Thankfully, the much-feared protests ended without much instability. But in view of the litany of demands submitted to the federal government by various groups of protesters, this should be a time of deep, sober reflections on governance shortfalls in Nigeria. Rather than continue to engage in lavish spendings for its officials while ordinary citizens face daily hunger and insecurity, it is adviseable that government directs national resources towards addressing demanding social issues.
The federal government’s rationale at prioritising in this critical time, the expenditure of $150 million (about N240 billion) on additional presidential aircraft is therefore baffling. This is more so, considering that the Boeing B737-700(BBJ) presidential jet which dutifully served all past administrations, from Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), is still very fit. Since May, 2023, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over the mantle of leadership, this administration has severally appealed to Nigerians to make sacrifices by enduring the hardships caused by the sudden removal of energy subsidies and other disruptive policies, but it appears the officials themselves are excluded from tasting the prescriptions of austerity recommended to ‘fellow Nigerians.’
The first significant provocation came during the 2023 supplementary budget of N2.17 trillion, in which Mr President proposed N5 billion for the procurement of a presidential yacht. Even as the National Assembly later declined the request publicly, following massive uproar, sources reveal that the yacht had already been delivered. For a national budget financed mainly by loans, reports also say the president has discarded the state-of-the-art, exortic presidential car, Mercedes Maybach S Class, that served his predecessors, for an armoured Cadillac Escalade at a cost of N995 million, while as at May, 2024 when the administration marked its one year in office, about N3.7 billion had already been spent on vehicles and tyres alone, out of the N40.62 billion allocated for the state house, a separate $38 million expended to renovate the presidential fleet, and N1.5 billion allocated for vehicles for the unconstitutional office of the First Lady.
Vice President Kashim Shettima is also not left out from the spoil, considering the N21 billion expenditure for his Abuja residence alone. According to reports, members of the National Assembly are also enjoying extravagazas with luxurious vehicles and other largesse being doled out. The 360 members of the House of Representatives in particular, got Sport Utility Vehicles each worth about N160 million, amounting to a whooping total of N57.6 billion, some members reportedly opting for the cash, while a government that came on-board on the mantra of curtailling expensive government subsidies that for years dragged the nation’s growth, turned around to splash N90 billion to subsidise the 2024 Hajj pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Sadly, all these lavish expenditures are taking place in a country where due to paucity of funds many economic roads and other critical national infrastructure are comatose, national universities are starved of research funds, national agro-potentials are under-utilised, struggling industries die under energy starvation, and the average worker is inhumanly under-paid, while critical gadgets and welfare needed by security personnel who are daily overwhelmed by rising insurgency, are scarcely provided. However, of all the profligacies, the expenditure of $150 million on 15-year old, third-hand additional aircraft, is so far the most provocative, and humiliating for Nigeria’s national image, even as the plane became embroiled in embarrassing seizures over national debts, that set a stranded Mr President to oscillate between France and Nigeria.
According to reports, “Nigeria’s newly acquired presidential aircraft, an Airbus A330-200 with registration number 5N-FGA, was manufactured 15 years ago, in November, 2009.” It was initially purchased by Midroc Aviation of Saudi Arabia who operated it for 12 years with a VIP configuration, registered as VP-CAC. In 2021 Midroc sold it to Switzerland-based AMAC Aerospace before Nigeria recently acquired it at a cost of $100 million, and spent additional $50 million for gadget retrofits at Toulouse in France. Nigeria shyly took delivery on Sunday, August 18, 2024, as the aircraft’s third owner. On its first outing however, it got entangled in embarrassing spotlights and publicity, when an aggrieved Chinese company swooped on it alongside two other presidential aircrafts – a Dassault Falcon 7X and a Boeing 737.
Quite hillariously, a spokesperson of the Chinese firm said, Nigeria was later granted use of the seized Airbus 330 because Nigerian officials pleaded that French President, Emmanuel Macron, had earlier been promised a lift alongside Nigeria’s President Tinubu to a scheduled meeting. One wonders if it is not an irony, that a president whose much poorer country, that does not produce even a spring of an aircraft, could afford to offer free rides to one whose country manufactures and maintains aircrafts? Which brings us to reflect on the economic wisdom, or otherwise, of acquiring fleets of aircrafts. Mr Macron, possibly, may have choosed to feed-off Nigeria’s unwise decisions, to save his country the burden of funding his own presidential ride.
It is indeed expensive to run aircrafts. The Airbus A300-200 in particular, consumes a tank capacity of 139,090 litres of aviation fuel for a flight range of 13,450 Km. At £1.05 current price per litre of the Jet A1 fuel, 139,090 litres translates to £146,044.50 per full tank, which at N2,082.09/£, is over N304 million. At about 10.671 Km flight distance between Nigeria and the US for example, a round-trip would require more refuelling. The huge burden of running air fleet is the reason many Nigerians call on the presidency to cut down on the frequency of its foreign trips, as well as the number of persons on presidential entourages.
Between February 19, 2024 and July, 2024 alone, the presidency spent about N2.3 billion on foreign trips. And for Airbus 300-200 whose useful life is 25 – 30 years, the purchase of a 15-year old at $150 million when the brand new is $180.9 million benefits only the vendors who have dumped their liability on Nigeria, while simultaneously extracting a maximum salvage value of $100 million. Prudence should be one of the hallmarks of good stewardship, especially in times of economic challenges as presently faced by Nigeria and Nigerians. In a challenging economy, it is expected that a savvy government should cut down on the cost of governance, even if it means going by commercial flights on some trips, while it works to revive the economy.
By: Joseph Nwankwor
The line that separates betrayal and corruption is very thin. Betrayal and corruption are two sides of the same coin. Like the snail and its shell they are almost inseparable. They go hand-in-globe. Betrayal and corruption are instinctive in humans and they are birthed by people with inordinate ambition – people without principles, without regard for ethical standards and values. Looking back to the days of Jesus Christ, one of his high profile disciples-the treasurer, was a betrayer. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for just 30 pieces of silver. One of the characteristics of betrayers is greed.
So, when on resumption from his imposed suspension, the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminilayi Fubara threatened to bring permanent secretaries who were found complicit in “defrauding” the State during the days of Locust and Caterpillar regime, he did not only decry a loot of the Treasury but the emotional trauma of betrayal perpetrated by those who swore to uphold the ethics of the civil service. Governor Siminilayi Fubara had least expected that those who feigned loyalty to his administration would soon become co-travellers with an alien administration whose activities were repugnant to the “Rivers First” mantra of his administration. The saying that if you want to prove the genuineness of a person’s love and loyalty feign death, finds consummate expression in the Governor Fubara and some of the key members of the State engine room
Some of those who professed love for Governor Siminilayi Fubara and Rivers State could not resist the lure and enticement of office in the dark days of Rivers State, like Judas Iscariot. Rather, they chose to identify with the locusts and the caterpillars for their selfish interest. Julius Caesar did not die from the stab of Brutus but by his emotional attachment to him, hence he exclaimed in utter disappointment, “Even you Brutus”. The wound of betrayal never heals and the scar is indelible. Unfortunately, today, because of gross moral turpitude and declension in ethical standards and values, betrayal and corruption are celebrated and rewarded. Corruption, a bane of civil/public service is sublime in betrayal. The quest to get more at the expense of the people is the root of betrayal and sabotage.
This explains why Nigeria at 65 is the World’s capital of poverty.
Nigeria is not a poor country, yet, millions are living in hunger, abject poverty and avoidable misery. What an irony. Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies and most populous nation is naturally endowed with 44 mineral resources, found in 500 geographical locations in commercial quantity across the country. According to Nigeria’s former Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Olamiekan Adegbite, the mineral resources include: baryte, kaolin, gymsium, feldspar, limestone, coal, bitumen, lignite, uranium, gold, cassiterite, columbite, iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, granite, laterite, sapphire, tourmaline, emerald, topaz, amethyst, gamer, etc. Nigeria has a vast uncultivated arable land even as its geographical area is approximately 923, 769 sq km (356,669 sq ml).
“This clearly demonstrates the wide mineral spectrum we are endowed with, which offers limitless opportunities along the value-chain, for job creation, revenue growth. Nigeria provides one of the highest rates of return because its minerals are closer to the suffer”, Adegbite said. Therefore, poverty in Nigeria is not the consequences of lack of resources and manpower but inequality, misappropriation, outright embezzlement, barefaced corruption that is systemic and normative in leaders and public institutions. According to the World Poverty Clock 2023, Nigeria has the awful distinction of being the world capital of poverty with about 84 million people living in extreme poverty today.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data also revealed that a total of 133 million people in Nigeria are classed as multi-dimensionally poor. Unemployment is a major challenge in the country. About 33 percent of the labour force are unable to find a job at the prevailing wage rate. About 63 percent of the population are poor because of lack of access to health, education, employment, and security. Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) speculated that unemployment rate will increase to 37 percent in 2023. The implications, therefore, is increase in unemployment will translate to increase in the poverty rate. The World Bank, a Washington-based and a multi-lateral development institution, in its macro-poverty outlook for Nigeria for April 2023 projected that 13 million Nigerians will fall below the National Poverty line by 2025.
It further stated that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products without palliatives will result to 101 million people being poor in Nigeria. Statistics also show that “in 2023 nearly 12 percent of the world population of extreme poverty lived in Nigeria, considering poverty threshold at 1.90 US dollars a day”.Taking a cursory look at the Nigerian Development Update (NDU), the World Bank said “four million Nigerians were pushed into poverty between January and June 2023 and 7.1 million more will join if the removal of subsidy is not adequately managed.” These startling revelations paint a grim and bleak future for the social-economic life of the people.The alarming poverty in the country is a conspiracy of several factors, including corruption. In January, 2023 the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, in its annual corruption prospect index which ranks the perceived level of public sector corruption across 180 countries in the world says Nigeria ranked 150 among 180 in the index. Conversely, Nigeria is the 30th most corrupt nation in the ranking. It is also the capital of unemployment in the world.
Truth be told: a Government that is corruption-ridden lacks the capacity to build a vibrant economy that will provide employment for the teeming unemployed population. So crime and criminality become inevitable. No wonder, the incessant cases of violent crimes and delinquency among young people. Corruption seems to be the second nature of Nigeria as a nation . At the root of Nigerians’ poverty is the corruption cankerworm.How the nation got to this sordid economic and social precipice is the accumulation of years of corrupt practices with impunity by successive administrations. But the hardship Nigerians are experiencing gathered momentum between 2015 and 2023 and reached the climax few days after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who assumed power as president of Nigeria, removed the controversial petroleum subsidy. Since then, there is astronomical increase in transport fares, and prices of commodities. Living standard of most Nigerians is abysmally low, essential commodities are out of reach of the poor masses who barely eat once a day.
The Dollar to Naira exchange rate ratio at one dollar to N1,000, is the most economy-unfriendly in the annals of the history of Nigeria. The prohibitive prices of petroleum products with the attendant multi-dimensional challenges following the removal of the subsidy, has posed a nightmare better to be imagined than experienced. Inflation, has been on the increase, negatively affecting the purchasing power of low income Nigerians. Contributing to the poverty scourge is the low private investment due to.unfriendly business environment and lack of power supply, as well as low social development outcomes resulting in low productivity. The developed economies of the world are private sector-driven. So the inadequate involvement of the private sector in Nigeria’s economy, is a leading cause of unemployment which inevitably translates to poverty.
Igbiki Benibo
In today’s fast-paced, hyper-competitive world, the pursuit of success and growth has become an all-consuming force. Individuals, organisations, and nations alike, are locked in a perpetual struggle to achieve more, earn more, and surpass their rivals. Yet, beneath this relentless drive for progress lies a silent danger—the risk of self-destruction. This perilous pattern, which I call the self-destruct trajectory, describes the path taken when ambition and growth are pursued without restraint, awareness, or moral balance. The self-destruct trajectory is fueled by an insatiable hunger for more—a mindset that glorifies endless expansion while disregarding the boundaries of ethics, sustainability, and human well-being. At first glance, it may appear to promise prosperity and achievement. After all, ambition has long been celebrated as a virtue. But when growth becomes the only goal, it mutates into obsession.
Individuals burn out, organisations lose their soul, and societies begin to fracture under the weight of their own excesses. The consequences are everywhere. People pushed beyond their limits face anxiety, exhaustion, and disconnection. Companies sacrifice employee welfare and social responsibility on the altar of profit. The entire ecosystems suffer as forests are cleared, oceans polluted, and air poisoned in the name of economic progress. The collapse of financial systems, widening income inequality, and global environmental crises are all symptoms of this same relentless, self-consuming pursuit. To understand this dynamic, one can turn to literature—and to Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. In one of the novel’s most haunting scenes, young Oliver, starving in the workhouse, dares to utter the words: “Please, sir, I want some more.” This simple plea encapsulates the essence of human desire—the urge for more. But it also mirrors the perilous craving that drives the self-destruct trajectory. Like Oliver, society keeps asking for “more”—more wealth, more power, more success—without considering the consequences of endless wanting.
The workhouse itself symbolises the system of constraints and boundaries that ambition often seeks to defy. Oliver’s courage to ask for more represents the daring spirit of human aspiration—but it also exposes the risk of defying limits without reflection. Mr. Bumble, the cruel overseer, obsessed with authority and control, embodies the darker forces that sustain this destructive cycle: greed, pride, and the illusion of dominance. Through this lens, Dickens’ tale becomes a timeless metaphor for the modern condition—a warning about what happens when ambition blinds compassion and growth eclipses humanity. Avoiding the self-destruct trajectory requires a radical rethinking about success. True progress should not be measured solely by accumulation, but by balance—by how growth serves people, planet, and purpose.
This calls for a more holistic approach to achievement, one that values sustainability, empathy, and integrity alongside innovation and expansion
Individuals must learn to pace their pursuit of goals, embracing rest, reflection, and meaningful relationships as part of a full life. The discipline of “enough”—knowing when to stop striving and start appreciating—can restore both mental well-being and moral clarity. Organisations, on their part, must reimagine what it means to succeed: prioritising employee welfare, practising environmental stewardship, and embedding social responsibility in the core of their mission. Governments and policymakers also play a vital role. They can champion sustainable development through laws and incentives that reward ethical practices and environmental responsibility. By investing in education, renewable energy, and equitable economic systems, they help ensure that ambition is channeled toward collective benefit rather than collective ruin.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provides a tangible pathway for this transformation. When businesses take ownership of their social and environmental impact—reducing carbon footprints, supporting local communities, and promoting fair labour—they not only strengthen society but also secure their own long-term stability. Sustainable profit is, after all, the only kind that endures. Ultimately, avoiding the self-destruct trajectory is not about rejecting ambition—it is about redefining it. Ambition must evolve from a self-centred hunger for more into a shared pursuit of the better. We must shift from growth at all costs to growth with conscience. The future will belong not to those who expand endlessly, but to those who expand wisely. By embracing restraint, compassion, and sustainability, we can break free from the cycle of self-destruction and create a new narrative—one where success uplifts rather than consumes, and where progress builds rather than burns.
In the end, the question is not whether we can grow, but whether we can grow without losing ourselves. The choice is ours: to continue along the self-destruct trajectory, or to chart a more balanced, humane, and enduring path toward greatness.
Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi
