The recent purchase of a new $100 million aircraft for President Bola Tinubu has sparked widespread outrage among Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Many see this as a glaring example of a government out of touch with the daily struggles of its people, as the country faces its worst economic crisis in decades.<\/p>\n
For ordinary Nigerians, who are grappling with soaring prices and widespread poverty, the sight of the shiny new Airbus A330 on the tarmac in Nice, France, was a bitter pill to swallow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ask us to tighten our belts while he splurges on a jet,\u201d one frustrated citizen wrote on social media. Another added, \u201cThis purchase shows just how disconnected the president is from the suffering of Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili condemned the jet as a symbol of the administration’s “fiscal recklessness and dishonesty.”<\/p>\n
However, a presidential spokesperson defended the decision, claiming the aircraft was bought at a bargain price on the advice of the Senate’s security committee.<\/p>\n
As Nigeria grapples with soaring inflation and a staggering 40% of its population living in poverty, the expensive purchase has deepened the sense of frustration and disillusionment among many citizens.<\/p>\n
The cost-of-living crisis\u00a0that fueled the protests is the worst in a generation in this oil-rich and most populous African country, which by 2050 is forecast to become the third most populous nation in the world, tied with the United States after India and China.<\/p>\n
That crisis is blamed on the government’s economic policies to save more money and attract investors, but which have contributed to pushing the inflation rate to a 28-year high of 34.19% while the currency, the naira, languishes at record lows against the dollar. At least 63% of the population is poor.<\/p>\n
The government has struggled to create jobs. And the\u00a0world’s longest war on militancy\u00a0continues to unfold in its northeast.<\/p>\n
Despite its oil wealth, Nigeria’s population of more than 210 million people are also among the world\u2019s hungriest, accounting for 10% of the global burden, according to the U.N. food agency. Still, its politicians, often accused of corruption, are among the best-paid in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recent purchase of a new $100 million aircraft for President Bola Tinubu has sparked widespread outrage among Nigerians. Many see this as a glaring example of a government out of touch with the daily struggles of its people, as the country faces its worst economic crisis in decades. For ordinary Nigerians, who are grappling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"Africa News","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,27],"tags":[196,175,3041],"class_list":["post-13064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-west-africa","tag-bola-tinubu","tag-nigeria","tag-presidential-jet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}