Revisiting Vice President’s Airplane Debacle 

Chukwuka Odittah

Vice President Kashim Shettima was of late involved in a near-fatal airplane debacle in the line of duty. Surprisingly, this is not the first time his official aircraft will pose a disquieting danger to his life and those of his crew.

His aging official aircraft has been in the center of at least two unsettling incidents that could have claimed his life within a space of five months, had the worst happened.

Early in May, due to an unexpected mechanical hitch, the Vice President was forced to shelve an official trip to the United States where he was expected to represent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit.

The absence of the vice president at this meeting clearly cost the nation an incalculable loss in terms of plausible volume of foreign investments that trip could have fetched the country had it pulled through. Although this ailing aircraft has been returned to the hangars where it belongs, one can safely deduce that it has outlived its usefulness for our nation.

In October this year, the same aircraft was mysteriously struck by a flock of birds at the JFK Airport in New York, with the vice president onboard. 

The incident resulted in the shattering of the plane’s windshield, completely eroding the VP’s confidence in the aircraft to guarantee his safety in future official engagements. 

The shock of that incident left the vice president highly traumatised but determined to continue to seek the best for the nation.However, his resolve to serve is not enough. 

The nation must rise up to commit to taking the necessary steps to provide his office the required wherewithal to help the country realise her full potential.  The nation’s economy has been in a troubled state for far too long already. 

Salvaging it needs a concerted effort in addition to getting our scale of preference right. Although minimalists may argue that Shettima’s ordeal has no link whatsoever with the plight of the common man who grapples daily with food, shelter and skyrocketing prices of commodities, nonetheless nothing can be further from the truth.

 As the number two citizen of Africa’s largest economy and a role model for many around the world, the vice president is under oath to uphold the honour, dignity and prosperity of our nation. 

Should anything go awry while in office, this objective would not be achieved and vast majority of people would be at the shorter end of the stick. 

One of the ways he can successfully execute this multi-layered task is by first being properly equipped to function. When he flies in aircraft with fragile safety guarantee, we dampen his zest to go the extra mile to canvass the much needed robust economic lifeline that the nation needs to witness growth in broad terms.  

Flying around the world in a jet that goes in and out of the hangar for one major repair or another sends a bad signal about us not only in terms of our safety values  but also about our priorities as a nation.

The presidential jet attached to the office of the vice president is a part of our national assets. When it flies in the skies around the world, it advertises the Nigerian logo. If it contravenes safety preconditions in more ways than one, we as a people face the flak because it carries our national color. 

When an aircraft starts to require overhaul beyond routine checks before or after takeoff, it shows the level of its air-worthiness is fast falling short of benchmark. This has been the case of the vice president’s official jet of late. 

Although flying in chartered aircraft to attend global business meetings is practicable, its cost is simply humongous.  They are a drain on the nation’s fledgling economy, a scenario the vice president is keen to avoid. 

It needs to be emphasised that a nation’s assets are part of what is used to measure her credit worthiness when seeking to borrow.  Should Nigeria decide today to order a brand new aircraft for the vice president, we would have strategically increased our asset base and armed our executive to discharge their duties without encumbrances. 

The problem with our country has never been a shortage of resources. As a matter of fact, Nigeria may well be one of the most endowed with natural resources that can comfortably foot the bill involved.

According to statistics, Nigeria has approximately 206.53 trillion cubic feet of gas valued at over $803.4 trillion and a potential upside of 600 cubic feet of gas, making her the highest in Africa and among the top 10 globally.

 Other official reports reveal that crude oil earnings by Nigeria edged up by 50.2 percent raking in about N450 billion between December 2023 and January 2024.This figure excludes the accruables from condensates. 

In the agricultural sector, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria’s exported agricultural produce increased to 53 percent, netting N1.23 trillion in 2023 alone. The margin showed an increase from the N583.3 billion posted the year before. 

The list is long of other sources of revenue that the nation can draw from to comfortably fetch the country a brand new aircraft for the office of the vice president. 

Many countries who bask in the euphoria of being oil-rich as Nigeria have not been as lucky as we have. Some countries have lost their leaders in airplane crashes caused by outdated aircraft they refused to replace.

Vice president of Malawi, Saulos Chilima  in June this year crashed to his death along with nine others while on official assignment. He was aboard an aged Dornier 228-twin propeller aircraft sold to Malawi in 1988. This ailing plane suddenly disappeared from the radar, killing all its passengers including the crew members. 

Samora Machele, Mozambique’s first president since the country’s independence in 1975, died in an air crash on 19th of October 1986. He was flying in an aged Tupolev TU-134 aircraft when it suddenly came down. 

Jaime Roldos Aguilera of Ecuador was another world leader who lost his life in a deadly air crash involving an aged Avro 748 aircraft in 1979.He died alongside his minister of defence and their spouses. 

In another rather sad incident, Rene Barrientos of Bolivia, died when his aged Hughes 369 aircraft plunged from the skies.His counterpart, Castelo Branco,Brazil’s first military ruler died also in an air crash involving an aged Piper PA-23 aircraft on 18th July 1967. 

Abdul Salam Arif, the second president of Iraq died in an air crash involving an aged Havilland Dove. Similarly, President Ramon Magsaysay of Philipines died in an air crash on March 17, 1957. He was aboard an aged but frequently maintained C-47 Skytrain aircraft when they crashed to death together with all crew members. 

In 1940, September 7, it was the turn of Paraguay’s president to pay the prize of sitting in the skies on an old but regularly maintained Potez 25 aircraft. 

The late Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi was the most recent world leader to pay the prize when his official helicopter, also an aged aircraft came down suddenly in circumstances blamed on bad weather. But is it well known that bad weather alone can’t bring down newer models of aircrafts because they have inbuilt navigational aids that allows them to ride bad weathers safely.   

One common denominator with most of these countries was access to oil wealth. But they failed to allow their resources to work for them by quickly phasing-out their aged aircrafts, no matter how well maintained they may have been. 

Nigeria must not be allowed to descend this low. We are wiser. With providence on our side which clearly was what kept the vice president and his crew from crashing while flying in his troubled official jet, Nigeria must make haste while the sun shines to procure a brand new aircraft for the vice president. It is not a wasteful venture, neither is it a sectional investment intended to line the pockets of anyone as some minimalists may wish to argue. 

It is merely putting our money where our collective interest is best served. Nigerians must give the vice president’s office all the tools it requires to steer the nation’s economic ship out of troubled waters. Part of how that can be achieved is to equip that office to freely interface with qualitative investors from around the world while the rest of us sit back and anticipate tangible results that we all can be proud of. Procuring a new aircraft is not serving the interest of the north, south east or west but the good of all citizens of a soon to emerge great country called Nigeria. 

 Odittah wrote in from Abuja