Many Nigerians have taken to social media to lament the allegedly large costs of parking the presidential jet at a London airport for nearly two months.
NAF 001, the official aircraft of the Nigerian president, has reportedly been parked at a London airport for more than seven weeks since Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari traveled in it to the U.K. to receive medical treatment for undisclosed illness on May 8th.
With no word from Mr. Buhari’s aides about his scheduled date of return, Nigerians have been speculating on the cost of keeping the presidential jet in the U.K.:
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If negotiation is £1000/day
£1000=1000×465= N465,000/day
N465,000×50days=N23,250,000
Pres Buhari’s jet is parked N23.25million in 50 days— Kemi Ariyo (@d_problemsolver) June 29, 2017
This Nigerian Presidential Jet pays Ugx 18.2M as parking fee for the last 50 days as the pres. Buhari receives treatment the bill is 910m pic.twitter.com/KzyP3E9cw3
— Harunah Kiyemba (@harunakiye) June 27, 2017
Is President Buhari using our presidential jet on his bed in London?
Why can’t he return the jet till he is ready to work?
Till then!
— JEW (@EMIOLAWALEOLA) July 1, 2017
So the Nigerian govt decided to leave Pres Buhari’s jet in London n continue to pay huge amount of parking fees daily 4 more dan 50 days now
— makinde akintunde (@yhakman99) June 29, 2017
A number of unverified sources say it costs between £4,000 and £5,000 a day to keep the presidential jet in the London parking space, but presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu rejected the estimates as untrue in a Thursday statement:
We have also read claims about outrageous fees allegedly paid by Nigeria. The published amounts are totally untrue. Aircraft conveying heads of state all over the world usually enjoy waivers even where payments for parking are differentiated by aircraft categories, Shehu said.
The spokesman said that even in the absence of a waiver, daily payments for parking space would not exceed £1,000, which he described as a quarter of the amount being peddled.
According to Shehu, President Buhari is not the first — nor will he be the last — to have a presidential aircraft standing by for him. He added that it was global standard operating procedure to have an aircraft ready and waiting for a president and commander-in-chief whenever he (or she) is abroad.
All past heads of this country have had this privilege, and the part that surprises the most is that leaders who in the past traveled with three Nigerian aircraft did not suffer this trenchant criticism.
President Buhari, 74, has been dogged by health challenges since he was sworn in as president in 2015.
The exact nature of his illness has never been made public, but his ability to continue in his capacity as elected president remains a hot topic in Nigeria due to his constant need to be away from the country in order to receive treatment.
