Presidential Airline Enlarged by Dele Sobowale

“When all think alike; no one thinks very much”. Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974. (VANGUARD BOOK OF UOTATIONS p. 245). What a coincidence it has turned out to be. Just last week under the new addendum to my columns “CHIP SHOTS”, I made reference to the fact that the President of Nigeria had ten aircraft in his fleet; more than any other President in the world. Bearing in mind that our country is ranked 39th in the world in terms of GDP, and one of the poorest on earth, when we take into account that 70 per cent of our people live below the global poverty line, Nigeria’s Presidential Airlines should enter into the Guinness Book of Records for presidential impunity.
At Unijankara, while sharing in the national anguish that President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, is our duly elected leader, we take solace in the fact that we warned Nigerians not to vote for him. Even highly intelligent people responded with the refrain, “I voted for Jonathan; not PDP” – as if it made any difference. Now we all have him and like every decision made by human beings we are confronted with the consequences of our majority decision. The crash of the Navy helicopter had revealed to us, at Unijankara, that while we were ahead of everybody else at recognizing the economically corrosive impact of the Presidential Airline, even we missed the point that the fleet might be more than ten.
 Now, we know that it includes anything presumed to be airworthy apparently owned by the Federal government of Nigeria; but in reality, privatized by one individual, who can deploy them on errands as he wants. So Nigeria’s Presidential airline is actually larger than we thought and we would not know how big it is until an audit of Federally owned aircrafts is undertaken. It is a pity that it has taken the death of some people, one of them not innocent, to reveal to all of us, perhaps, a serious crime that had gone unnoticed for so long. The Yoruba people have an adage for this, “Ojo gbogbo ni t’ole; ojo kan ni to ni’un” [everyday for the thief; one day for the owner]. One thing is certain; this is not the first time that military aircrafts would have been deployed to go and ferry birthday cakes, cows, and Captain’s Soup to remote areas of Nigeria in order to please some politician or public official – at great expense to the rest of us. Well, you voted for this nonsense. So enjoy it.
Comparatively, Obama, President of the USA, who is the Commander of the Armed Forces of the USA, cannot, and would not ask the Navy, the Air Force or the Marines, America, to release a helicopter to convey guests to the funeral ceremony of a cabinet Secretary or Adviser – because it is a strictly private affair. Military aircrafts are procured to handle the nation’s security affairs; not to convey public officials, with over-bloated egos to private functions. In fact, if Obama were to lose his senses as to order such a deployment of military aircraft, the Chief of Staff of that unit would have bluntly refused. If pressed further, he would have resigned his appointment. But, here, the “public” officials go along; they willingly obey each and every unconstitutional instruction in what is supposed to be a republic of human beings but is more like a zoo of docile sheep. Pictures in newspapers showed highly placed individuals shedding tears – crocodile tears. As Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, has warned us, “It is the wisdom of the crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour”.
It is very possible while “Fellow Nigerians” [read mugus] are being treated to an African Magic type production of tears, another aircraft is on its way to the location to retrieve cutlery left behind. The sooner we accept the fact that our military aircrafts are meant solely for the defence of our territorial integrity, the better for all of us. Reading the newspapers one would get the impression that a serious probe into the incident is underway. Anyone foolish enough to think that way should step up for the Unijankara ANNUAL FOOLS’ AWARD. Virtually, all the top officials of the National Assembly; governors who have not bought their own jets; top functionaries of the PDP, Ministers, Security top brass etc have enjoyed the services of the Presidential Airline. Nothing will come out of it.

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