₦airaland Forum

Goodbye ‘La Pointe de Sangomar’

In Senegal, the saga of the presidential aircraft dubbed “La Pointe de Sangomar” [a narrow sandbar in the Atlantic Ocean west of Senegal] finally ended in June 2014, when President Macky Sall donated the plane to the country’s air force after failing to find a buyer.

A Boeing 727-2M1 fitted with a private bedroom, a shower as well as presidential and ministerial meeting rooms, “La Pointe de Sangomar” served three presidents – including Senegal’s founding father, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and his successors, Abdou Diouf and Abdoulaye Wade.

The controversy around “La Pointe de Sangomar” erupted during Wade’s last term in office, when the increasingly unpopular octogenarian leader announced his plan to buy a new presidential carrier, arguing that “La Pointe de Sangomar” was outdated and frequently ran into mechanical problems.

Wade replaced the presidential aircraft with a new Airbus 319 christened “La Pointe de Sahel” in 2011, sparking an outcry, with opposition leaders noting that the $43 million for the new acquisition was not authorised in the country’s budget.

Two years later, Wade’s successor Sall came to power. After several unsuccessful bids to sell the “La Pointe de Sangomar”, the aging presidential plane was finally donated to the Senegalese Air Force. The aircraft is expected to spend its last days in an army museum, where the exhibits include three presidential limousines.

A presidential plane waiting to be used

Sometimes intrigue and presidential planes go hand in hand and one of Africa’s newest leaders is apparently not above the fray.

Benin’s President Patrice Talon – a tycoon-turned-politician who was sworn into office on April 6 – is not enthusiastic about using the country’s new presidential plane, according to La Lettre du Continent.

The jet, a Boeing 737, was ordered by Talon’s predecessor and arch rival, Boni Yayi and delivered just 24 hours before the new president was sworn in.

According to the French bimonthly, Talon has requested a technical investigation of the aircraft.

But the paranoia between Talon and Yayi runs both ways. In 2013, the current Beninese president was accused of trying to poison his predecessor. Talon was forced to flee Benin for France, where he stayed until a presidential pardon was issued a year later.

Under the circumstances, Talon probably has good reason to be suspicious. Meanwhile, the spanking-new Boeing 737 lies waiting to be used.

Cameroon’s tale of aerial greed and intrigue

The acquisition of pricey presidential planes in a continent dogged by poverty and corruption is bound to kick off an occasional stir. But few aerial controversies come close to the Cameroonian experience in terms of sheer intrigue, greed, paranoia and retribution.

It all began in 2001, when longstanding Cameroonian President Paul Biya decided he wanted a new plane to replace the existing presidential plane – called “the Pelican” – for his personal and official trips. But the impoverished West African nation at that time was trying to reduce its debt under a World Bank and IMF programme. The bill for a Boeing Business Jet class aircraft was not going to pass muster with the international financial institutions.

So, the country’s elites came up with a strategy to appease their “Big Man”.

The aircraft would be bought by the country’s national carrier, Camair. A financial package was duly set up, with the money – $33 million – coming from the National Oil Corporation, known by its French acronym, SNH.

Three years later, with the jet duly delivered, Biya – along with First Lady Chantal and the couple’s children – boarded the new presidential plane for an inaugural flight bound for Geneva. But the aircraft developed technical problems and had to make an emergency landing in the Cameroonian port city of Douala.

The saga of the Albatross, as the plane was called, had just begun.

The plane Biya and his family had boarded turned out not to be new at all. Through a series of intermediaries and shady negotiations, the Cameroonian state had merely leased the Albatross, an old Boeing 767-212. And the $33 million coughed up for a spanking new presidential plane had disappeared.

A darker chapter began shortly after that doomed April 24, 2004 "inaugural" flight of the presidential plane. Was the acquisition – or rather non-acquisition – of the faulty aircraft part of a grand plot to overthrow or bump off the president?

“The Albatross Affair” – as the scandal came to be called – suddenly had all the elements of a high-profile murder plot. Ministers – who also happened to be threats to Biya’s grip on power – were arrested in succession and thrown into the high-security Kondengui prison in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde.

The senior officials in jail included a politician a 2007 WikiLeaks cable revealed to be the man favoured by the US, France, and other Western diplomats to lead the country. Some even joke in Yaounde that there were enough top politicians in the country’s high security jail, to form a parallel government in Kondengui.

Since then, La Lettre du Continent notes, Biya has "not dared" buy a presidential plane. The Cameroonian strongman instead relies on luxury private charter jets to ferry him back and forth from Cameroon to Europe. This happens alarmingly often since the octogenarian leader spends extended periods living in a Swiss hotel, which has earned him the moniker “the absentee landlord” in diplomatic circles.

Issoufou of Niger gets a ‘prestige purchase’

The opposition does not count for much in Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, which consistently ranks at the bottom of the UN Human Development Index. Earlier this year, President Mahamadou Issoufou was sworn in for a second term in office following an election boycotted by the opposition.

But back in 2014, when Issoufou announced the acquisition of a $40 million Boeing 737-700 to replace the existing presidential jet, it sparked howls of protest from the opposition.

"With our country facing a new famine and with further serious flooding this year, the state decides to spend billions [of CFA or Central African Francs] on a prestige purchase," Ousseini Salatou, spokesman for the Nigerien opposition coalition, told reporters.

By then of course, it was already too late.

Defending the purchase, then Defense Minister Karidjo Mahamadou said the new presidential jet would help improve “the influence of our illustrious republic”.

Meanwhile the old presidential jet – a Boeing 737 bought in the 1970s by former president Seyni Kountche – remains in service despite one aviation expert likening it to “a flying coffin”.

But that’s an analogy that was also used in Cameroon – to disastrous effect.

Zuma’s ‘gravy plane’

The fracas around South African President Jacob Zuma’s bid to acquire a luxury presidential jet never seems to end.

Earlier this month, stories of the new presidential jet found their way into local news again after it emerged that around 800 South African peacekeeping troops in Darfur, Sudan, had been stranded as the military scrambled to bring them home. The problem, according to local reports, was the military’s “unoperational” C130 heavy-lift aircraft. As an editorial in South African daily “The Times”, noted, “Finding the money to replace the ageing C130 fleet has to take precedence over vanity projects such as buying a new presidential jet.”

Zuma’s predilection for luxury – including opulent private residential upgrades – is well known and comes at a time when budgets are being slashed and students have been protesting fee hikes.

Given the circumstances, his administration’s bid to acquire a new presidential jet with a long-haul fuel range of 13,800 kilometers complete with a luxury bedroom suite and a conference room was not about to go down well with the opposition.

Sure enough, the estimated bill of around $280 million sparked howls of protest and calls to scrap the new aerial acquisition plan.

South Africa’s Defense Department, however, argues that the current presidential plane – a Boeing 737 called “Inkwazi” after the Zulu word for the African fish eagle – is outdated and has been grounded a number of times due to mechanical problems.

The continuing furore has sometimes left South African authorities with a myriad of bad choices. When Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had to visit Japan in November, for instance, the military had to choose between chartering a plane from companies associated with corruption scandals, arms manufacturing or colonial-era exploitative mining.

It looks as though Zuma’s bid to get on a gravy plane does have some merit. But the problem seems to be the price of the fixtures.

The number checks out, check the DPR website on this link https://dpr.gov.ng/index/field-offices/

people should know that operators of these illegal refineries have no regard for the pollution and degradation they cause to the environment, in addition the quality of the products they produce is not optimal for smooth engine operations.

to build a refinery is a highly regulated and technical activity, you cannot just open one the way you would open a workshop or a mill, before a refinery is setup environmental impact assessment (EIA) tests are done to ascertain what impact the refinery will have on the environs, in fact some of this crude oil have poisonous substances in them which are just left to go into the atmosphere (eg sulphur), source and grade of the crude oil it will refine, these and many more are required to set it up, to regularize their activity would mean that we are okay with a polluted environment.

Ben Bruce should do research on this.

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_medium/public/thumbnails/image/2015/10/13/19/corruption.png[img][/img]
Be it rigged elections, bribery, or counterfeit medicines trickling into hospitals, this map shows how widespread backroom deals are across the world.

The majority of the map is coloured in a concerning reddish hue denoting a high level of corruption, with Somalia and North Korea topping the list - scoring eight out of a potential perfect score of 100.


The most corrupt countries in the world
Denmark, New Zealand, Finland and Sweden meanwhile scored the best in the research compiled by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International.

However, no countries scored a perfect 100, or “very clean”, or a “highly corrupt” zero in its most recent Corruptions Perceptions Index.

The researchers flagged Australia as a particularly concerning country. Despite being represented by a relatively healthy-looking yellow colour on the map, the country has continued its slide down the list, and fallen out of the top ten to 11.

Experts cited note-printing scandals and corruption investigations for its relatively poor performance.

Other countries with a worryingly red representation on the map include the expanding economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.

The 20 'least corrupt' countries in the world

1 Denmark 92

2 New Zealand 91

3 Finland 89

4 Sweden 87

5 Norway 86

5 Switzerland 86

7 Singapore 84

8 Netherlands 83

9 Luxembourg 82

10 Canada 81

11 Australia 80

12 Germany 79

12 Iceland 79

14 United Kingdom 78

15 Belgium 76

15 Japan 76

17 Barbados 74

17 Hong Kong 74

17 Ireland 74

17 United States 74
Jose Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International, explained in a release with the report: “Fast-growing economies whose governments refuse to be transparent and tolerate corruption, create a culture of impunity in which corruption thrives.”

The UK, meanwhile, placed at 14: a result regarded as disappointing by researchers, who said the it should be in the top 10.

Meanwhile, the destabilising impact of bloody conflicts and violence was made clear in the low rankings of Sudan, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Iraq, which followed Somalia and North Korea.

The 20 'most corrupt' countries in the world

156 Cambodia 21

156 Myanmar 21

156 Zimbabwe 21

159 Burundi 20

159 Syria 20

161 Angola 19

161 Guinea-Bissau 19

161 Haiti 19

161 Venezuela 19

161 Yemen 19

166 Eritrea 18

166 Libya 18

166 Uzbekistan 18

169 Turkmenistan 17

170 Iraq 16

171 South Sudan 15

172 Afghanistan 12

173 Sudan 11

174 Korea (North)8

174 Somalia 8
However Afghanistan was also among the nations praised for making great improvements, rising by five points since 2013, alongside Jordan, Mali and Swaziland rising by four.

Côte d´Ivoire, Egypt, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, also rose by five points.

“Bribes and backroom deals don’t just steal resources from the most vulnerable – they undermine justice and economic development, and destroy public trust in government and leaders,” the body warned.

Transparency International has launched a campaign called Unmask the Corrupt, and has called on other nations and bodies to follow Denmark’s example.

The European Union, United States and G20 countries must create public registers that documents those behind bodies, making it more difficulty for criminals to pose behind other names, according to campaigners.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-one-map-which-shows-the-worlds-most-corrupt-countries-a6692976.html

[img]http://imgcdn3.newsrep.net/i.img?u=http%3a%2f%2fnewsrepmedia.blob.core.windows.net%2fimage%2f2015-08%2f46281037_00_d-1024x682_f-1_c-563x151.jpg&w=600[/img]
Chad's President Idriss Deby declared Tuesday that efforts to combat neighbouring Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists had succeeded in "decapitating" the group and would be wrapped up "by the end of the year".
Addressing reporters in the capital N'Djamena on the 55th anniversary of Chad's independence from France, Deby said: "Boko Haram is decapitated. There are little groups (of Boko Haram members) scattered throughout east Nigeria, on the border with Cameroon. It is within our power to definitively overcome Boko Haram."
"The war will be short, with the setting up of the regional force, it will be over by the end of the year," Deby added, referring to a new five-country force aimed at ending Boko Haram's bloody six-year Islamist insurgency that he said would be "operational in a few days".
Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria have all pledged troops towards the new force.
Deby further claimed that Boko Haram was no longer led by the fearsome Abubakar Shekau and that his successor was open to talks.
"There is someone apparently called Mahamat Daoud who is said to have replaced Abubakar Shekau and he wants to negotiate with the Nigerian government.
"For my part, I would advise not to negotiate with a terrorist," Deby, whose country has been spearheading the regional fightback against Boko Haram, said.
While claiming progress in the fight against the jihadists, who have repeatedly hit border areas of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and wrought havoc in northeast Nigeria, Deby admitted that suicide bombers still posed a threat.
In the past few week, suicide bombers, many of them women, have staged several attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.
The challenge, Deby said, was to "avoid terrorist acts and that's why we must organise at the regional level to prevent bomb-making materials and other explosives entering our countries."
http://news.yahoo.com/boko-haram-decapitated-chadian-leader-000405864.html

banito1:
What's up with the red and white? Anyone in Kano should please enlighten us

It started with the immediate governor, Kwankwaso who in turn does so in honor of Mallam Aminu Kano who's signature dressing is the red cap and white clothings.

Deltagiant:
I really don't think this architecture is truly indigenous to the Hausa cos it's not anything different from the Islamic designs obtainable in Mali and other sahel black Africa.

Islamic architecture are characterized by arches,domes and minarets, of which the "tubali" architecture doesn't have, I don't know of any civilization in Africa that builds in a similar fashion.

These look modern

And people will call Buhari a religious bigot,he will islamise Nigeria and all manner of propaganda, we have never seen Buhari go to a mosque and make policy statements unlike GEJ, who is fooling who?

The GMB campaign office denied this on their twitter handle.

I don't think you have seen the figures of PVC collection across the country on INEC website.

Generals02:
And perhaps only 5% of the 60% have successfully gotten a voter's card.

PDP is leaving no stone unturned.

May the perpetrators and sponsors of this demonic act never no peace in this life and the hereafter, may they be humiliated, savages.

Though they have delayed the elections,they cannot deny their certain defeat at the polls.

If the army can be politicised ,I see no difficulty in them removing Buhari's certificate from their files just to discredit him.

FUD tactics.

Since the beginning of the campaigns,the PDP have been unable to tell Nigeria what they will do for her,while the APC is gathering momentum, before they know it they will be kicked out and they wouldn't know what hit them.
Every day it becomes increasingly obvious that they have nothing to offer to us.
#WeNeedChange.

This people have nothing to offer, from creating one needless controversies to the other.
Let's campaign on issues,what you can offer to Nigerians.

The same katsina that the governor refered to the opposition as cockroaches... Hmmn

And as for those who have resorted to ethnic slurs, this shows how shallow,empty and feeble minded you are,it just shows that when things really matter you buckle at that point,what a shame.
You lack the strength of character to see to the actualization of an ideal.
If you don't like the change coming your way you will be swept away by it to the dust bin of history.
Thanks.

What is backward about it? It is a symbolic gesture of PDP being swept away, quite literally from sokoto for good.

kendrick9:
see this backward people.. no wonder u want buhari who can't even show us his certificate. ..
anyway #Gejtill2019

If you can't live with it,leave with your govt come may29 2015.

bonechamberlain:
north again ... Na wa o.... boko haram, terrorist, terrorism, poverty etc. now bird flu ... hmm may God help that region... that's if they are ready to accept him as their lord and personal saviour

What of Ebola,child trafficking,pipeline vandalism,kidnappings and the rest from which region are they more prevalent?
I don't why people likev you choose to think like this,you are the sort that divides this country.
Bird flu is an airborne disease it can spread to anywhere.
Try to be a rational thinker and the world would be better off
Thanks.

Dumbest thing to say, as CinC you have all resources at your disposal, you just have to have good coordination skills.

Its this the best they can come up with.

This is an excerpt, for those who are ridiculing GMB because he said he would stabilize oil price.

Lol,did they come to visit the tiger or the empty throne.

omenka:
Meanwhile, some place else... Some dudes got a leper treatment!

I'm confused was he not their spokesman that he denied had no hand in the Independence day bombing!
A case of chicken coming home to roost.

I honestly don't know why Gov Rochas is receiving insults from some people on this forum, the problem with igbos whether you accept it or not is that you put all your eggs into one political basket, by that I mean almost all of you belong to APGA,
we have here a man who has been able to reach across the Niger and is accepted.
Let your sons and daughters spread to other politacal parties just as you are spread across the world,so that if this party doesn't make at least you know your interests will still be protected by other parties.
Thanks