Ogun FTZ: Chinese embassy keeps mum on controversial deal
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Chinese Government on Monday distanced itself from the legal scuffle between the Ogun State Government and the Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Company Ltd., which involved the seizure and eventual release of some of Nigeria’s presidential aircraft, including a modified Airbus A330.
This was as the Presidency confirmed the purchase and delivery of the Airbus A330 business jet, which President Bola Tinubu flew from Abuja to Paris, France, on Monday evening.
The Head of Communication at the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Gu Jiang, told The PUNCH that “Chinese companies are private enterprises and do not belong to the Chinese government.”
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, who earlier released photos of Tinubu boarding the new aircraft, said it replaced the 19-year-old Boeing B737-700 (BBJ) bought under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure.
The presidential jet became a subject of heated public debate when the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence agreed to buy new aircraft for the President and the Vice-President as the existing presidential jets were faulty and unsafe for use.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, GodsWill Akpabio, refuted the claims that the Red Chamber had approved the purchase of the Presidential jet, stating that the lawmakers would approve the request if it came before them.
Akpabio said, “We care about the President and the Nigerian people. We will approve things that will benefit the Nigerian people.
“We will approve things that would improve the living standard of the people. At the same time, we will also take cognisance of the duties of the President.”
“If his vehicle is bad, we will repair the vehicle. If his plane is bad, we will approve money to repair the plane. So, that is not an issue. There is nothing before us. I don’t think you should worry about it,” the Senate President added.
While reacting to the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, who described the plan as misplaced and insensitive, the Presidency justified the need to purchase a new aircraft.
It described Obi’s comment as insensitive, wondering if he would rather have the president’s life endangered by flying a faulty plane.
“Does he (Obi) want him (Tinubu) to continue moving around in a rickety plane and die like the VP of Malawi and Iran President? Let him tell us. This is a basic thing any sane government will do. You can’t toy with your President’s welfare,” Onanuga said
While Nigerians awaited the presidential request for budgetary approval of the jet, news of the purchase bubbled to the surface when a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Company Limited, secured a judgment from a French court to seize three presidential jets—a Dassault Falcon 7X, a Boeing 737 and an Airbus 330.
In 2007, the Ogun State Government entered into a joint venture agreement with Zhongshan and another company to create the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone Company.
However, in the first half of 2016, the agreement between the parties broke down, leading to Zhongshan filing lawsuits in Nigerian federal and state courts to reinstate its contractual rights, which failed.
According to reports, the Presidency purchased the jet from the Service Wide Votes.
“The new plane bought far below the market price, saves Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly,” Onanuga said on his X account Monday evening.
He added, “The recommendation to replace the B737-700(BBJ) followed an investigative hearing by Nigeria’s parliament that questioned the plane’s safety record and cost efficiency, especially after it malfunctioned during a trip to Saudi Arabia.
“The Nigerian Senate’s security and intelligence committee recommended replacing the ageing aircraft in the presidential fleet to reduce downtime and operational expenses. The new plane is spacious and is furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, a customised interior and a communications system.”
The wide-bodied aircraft with registration number 5N-NGA had landed at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, at 08:30 pm Sunday, where it was received by the commander of the Presidential Air Fleet, Air Vice Marshall Olayinka Olusola, and other officials.
On Friday, August 16, Zhongshan announced that it had decided to release one of the three presidential aircraft belonging to the Nigerian government that had been clipped down in France.
The Chinese firm revealed that it did so as a gesture of goodwill, referencing a scheduled meeting between President Tinubu and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. The company also said it realised the importance of the aircraft for this diplomatic engagement and, therefore, provided the equipment for use.
The dispute occurred just weeks before President Tinubu’s scheduled participation in the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation, which will be held in Beijing, China, from September 3 – 8, 2024.
It is valued at $100m (N150bn) and contains a bedroom, office space, conference and dining rooms.
However, some former principal officers in the Nigerian senate have berated the Federal Government for purchasing the new toy based on the service-wide vote. The former lawmakers also criticised the secrecy surrounding the service-wide votes.
A former minority leader claimed that purchasing the jet from the service-wide votes was wrong. However, he noted that no law restricts such purchases.
“The service-wide votes have become slush money; there’s no description of what you can do with the money. It wasn’t right for us in such a way. It means that such money would be spent based on discretion, and in Nigeria, you know what discretion means; you can decide just to pocket everything.
“Some of us decided that it wasn’t right for us to operate the votes in such a way, but you see, the hands of the lawmakers are also tied because it is the legislature; all you can do is to suggest.
“You cannot do anything and that is the problem with all of them at the senate; it’s like state accompli and it’s not good for us as a country. If it’s just a few amounts that are kept there, we wouldn’t have a problem, but they keep such a humongous amount if the president can decide to buy a jet of about $50m, you can imagine the quantum of funds is in the votes.”
The former minority leader added, “We can’t blame the people in the national assembly now because they don’t have a say; it’s about the accountant-general and auditor-general. Once the two agree on that, then the money can go.
“it’s not the best for us; we cannot have slush funds.”
He also criticised the purchase, saying, “It is very wrong for the president to have gone to purchase the jet from the service-wide votes, but let me tell you what would happen. There would have been a quiet approval, and you’d see people put party interest first instead of national interest.”
“People would say we are in the same party, how dare you say, you can’t approve such this partism thing is something we must do something do away with. It’s something they must get done.
“You will even be shocked that they might approve it without the opposition even knowing anything about it, except for a few people like us who can face whoever,” the former lawmaker noted.
The senator added, “Most people in the opposition are not talking because they don’t want to rock the boat, and sadly, most people in the 10th assembly are first-timers.
“They haven’t been there before and don’t know what is happening or how things should be done.”
Another former lawmaker who said he would not be willing to speak so much on the issue simply condemned the president, an ex-lawmaker himself, for acceding to such a purchase outside of appropriation.
He argued, “Such an item requires appropriation; it’s not an item that should be purchased without appropriation.”
Similarly, some civil society organisations have criticised the Federal Government for using service-wide votes to purchase presidential jets.
The Chairman of the Centre for Accountability and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, condemned the purchase of the presidential jet, stating that there must be checks and balances among the three tiers of government to prevent extra-budgetary spending.
He added that the country could not continue to run a democracy hinged on the luxurious interests of the leaders, adding that it wasn’t right that there was no budget for the aircraft.
“We suggest that the national assembly be called to order because they cannot claim they don’t know how the process went. How long are we going to continue to run a kind of democracy that is hinged on the luxurious interests of our leaders? That does not speak well of us as a country or a democracy.
“The restructuring has to start from there; that is, there must be checks and balances all the way, majorly on the finances. and nobody should engage in extra-budgetary spending unless it threatens the security of the country, or it is a matter of life and death for certain people, or there is war, or there is a pandemic or whatever. Basically, it is not right if indeed there was no budget for it, no supplementary budget and nobody approved it, not the national assembly, even the national executive council”, he said.
Also, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative And Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, noted the lack of public trust in the national assembly, noting that the NASS allegiance was to the president.
He faulted the punishment of ranking senators who had expressed differing opinions and the lack of accountability and input before converting public resources to personal resources.
“As far as the national assembly is concerned, their allegiance is to the president, and they have also been singing that it is on his mandate they stand. For a NASS that cannot checkmate, or at least state contrary opinions, without being punished like we’ve seen at least two ranking senators were, you can’t expect any of these important national issues to be considered before it is passed.
“However, as bastardised and undermined an institution as they are, there should still be discussions on issues that have to do with these kinds of projects or expenditures because it is the public resources, not personal resources because what the leadership has done is to turn public resources into personal resources, there is no accountability, no feedback, no discussion, and no input from anybody,” he said.
