President Bola Tinubu's Special Adviser on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, on Tuesday explained that the decision of the president to purchase a new presidential jet was justifiable.
Bwala explained that Tinubu needs a good presidential jet to travel around the world.
In 2024, Tinubu had purchased a new presidential jet worth around N150 billion despite outrage from Nigerians.
However, appearing on Arise Television's Morning Show, Bwala said:
"As for the purchase of the presidential jet, it's justifiable because for the president to travel around the world, he would need a better jet.
"I understand that when Buhari was in power, occasionally his jet had problems that needed to be fixed.
"And with respect to appointment, you appoint to meet a purpose, if there is a need to appoint people you will appoint, where the trouble will come is when you appoint people and they are not effective."
The presidential spokesman also stressed that Tinubu's administration was justified in borrowing because the funds are being used for infrastructural development.
He said:
"When I made the decision to support the president, I decided to pay attention to his policies and doing research. In doing so I decided to look at where there failure, I tried to know why.
"For example, there was a time we had food inflation and I tried to look at what actually is the cause of the food inflation and I realized there was natural disaster in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, while we have insecurity in the Northwest.
"The research is to find reason for whatever is the policy and where there is a misinterpretation of the policy, we will come out and give our perspective. Government is a work in progress, there is nothing magical about what I said before and what I'm saying now .
"As opposition, I opposed the government and now I speak for the government.
"The government borrows and there is a justification for borrowing. Before now, I never cared about whatever is the justification but now I realize that for the government to be able to carryout it's mandate for the people with limited resources, it needs to borrow.
"I will give you an example, there is a research by economics that only infrastructure alone, Nigeria needs to spend between 30 to 100 billion dollars annually in other to meet up with the deficit. Or in proper perspective, over a period of 30 years, Nigeria must spend between two to three trillion dollars.
"The budget of Nigeria is less than 35 trillion dollars, so definitely you see the need to borrow, when you borrow what do you do with it is what matters. The government borrow for infrastructure and intervention in the areas where it affects Nigerian people, so there is a justification for borrowing."
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