The Federal Government has spent a staggering N26.38 billion on the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) in the first 18 months of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, raising new questions about fiscal responsibility amid Nigeria’s mounting debt burden and economic hardship.
Data sourced from GovSpend.ng, a civic tech platform that tracks public expenditure, revealed that between July 2023 and December 2024, several high-value disbursements were made for the maintenance and operational costs of the fleet.
Despite repeated calls for cost-cutting and prudent fiscal management, the Tinubu administration has continued the tradition of allocating hefty sums to maintain Nigeria’s executive fleet — a line item that has long drawn public scrutiny.
The expenditure pattern shows that the bulk of the releases occurred between April and August 2024 — with one transaction as high as N5.08 billion on April 23, 2024, marking the largest single disbursement in the period under review.
The spending spree started early. On July 14, 2023, N846.03 million was released under the title “presidential air fleet forex transit funds”. Two days later, N674.82 million followed. In August 2023, disbursements escalated with N2 billion released on the 16th, in addition to N387.6 million and N713.22 million earlier in the same month.
Other notable payments include:
N1.27bn on both March 7 and March 9, 2024
N2.43bn and N1.27bn on May 8 and May 11, 2024
N1.25bn, N2.21bn, and N902.9m on August 5 and 6, 2024
By the end of August 2024, total fleet expenditure exceeded N5.6 billion — a period also marked by growing inflation and declining real incomes across Nigeria.
For context, former President Muhammadu Buhari allocated N81.80 billion to the PAF over a seven-year period (2016–2022). This included:
N62.47bn for operations and maintenance
N17.29bn for local and international trips
N2.04bn for other related costs
Though the Buhari administration faced similar criticism, the accelerated pace of fleet spending under Tinubu — averaging over N1.4bn per month — has reignited public debate.
Frank Oruye, a former Deputy Director at Nigerian Airways, attributed the high costs to the diverse nature of the fleet, which includes aircraft from different manufacturers such as Global Jet, Gulfstream (USA), Airbus (EU), and Bombardier (Canada).
“Each aircraft type demands its own unique set of maintenance equipment. That alone makes logistics complex and expensive,” he explained. “This issue is worsened by the naira’s continued depreciation, as all aviation-related transactions are dollar-denominated.”
Oruye also highlighted geopolitical risks, noting that the federal government’s decision to maintain a varied fleet helps avoid over-reliance on any one foreign power, especially in a diplomatic fallout scenario.
Meanwhile, Group Captain John Ojukutu (rtd), an aviation expert and former military officer, criticized the size of the fleet, calling it excessive.
“Why does Nigeria need 10 aircraft in its presidential fleet?” he asked. “Most commercial planes don’t undergo routine heavy maintenance every year. How many flight hours are these jets logging to justify this scale of spending?”
Ojukutu recalled that Buhari once considered reducing the fleet from 10 to 3, a move that never materialized. He now advocates for a fleet size of no more than four aircraft to serve both the president and vice president, with two additional aircraft for the National Assembly.
As Nigeria grapples with record debt servicing costs — which now consume nearly 98% of government revenue — the call for downsizing the presidential fleet and enforcing budgetary discipline has grown louder.
Critics argue that with rising poverty, epileptic power supply, and underfunded sectors like education and healthcare, spending over N26 billion on executive air travel sends the wrong message to millions of struggling Nigerians.
With the 2027 general elections on the horizon and opposition figures already leveraging the issue for political mileage, analysts believe the Tinubu administration may need to reconsider its luxury aviation strategy or face growing public backlash.