You’ve been a bad boy

President Tinubu is buying a luxurious presidential jet and Peter Obi isn’t having it

Jun 19, 2024

Good morning, Big Brains. If you’re like me and your brain somehow convinced you that the holiday was your new reality, you likely had a hard time getting out of bed today. It’s even worse that the next public holiday is in October. Forgive the mini rant and enjoy the newsletter.

- Margaret

Word count: ~1,000
Reading time ~3 mins

Let’s get into today’s edition:

Peter Obi and the Presidency disagree over efforts to buy a luxurious presidential jet
Biden makes permanent residency for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens easier
Car hits mourners during Malawi VP's funeral procession

The Big Deal

Peter Obi and Presidency disagree over efforts to buy a luxurious presidential jet

The Tinubu-led administration has made many controversial decisions since he was elected into office in June 2023, but this might be the most controversial yet. The presidency is currently in the process of purchasing a new presidential jet for President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima after receiving approval from the House of Reps.

In May, the news of the country’s “faulty presidential aircraft” became public after Shettima cancelled his trip to the United States where he was supposed to represent Tinubu at the US-Africa Business Summit. Since then, the Senate has been carrying out “investigations” to determine the state of presidential aircraft. They’ve recently said that the findings from their investigations showed that there was a need for a new presidential jet but they didn’t reveal these findings for the public to cross-examine. Right now, there is no strong evidence to determine whether the findings are true or not.

Peter Obi, a presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, criticised the decision on his X account, saying “The country is trending on the global media for facing its worst economic crisis, marked by high inflation, a falling currency, and widespread poverty, the government’s plan to buy new presidential jets demonstrates extreme insensitivity to citizens’ struggles”.

In response to Obi’s criticism, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who seems to be more focused on defending the president than anything else lately said, “Does Peter Obi want the President dead? Is that his wish? Does he want him 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.”

A private jet can cost anything between $2 million to $100 million but since the presidency has no plan of “toying with Tinubu’s welfare”, they might be leaning towards the extreme end of this range.

Why is this a big deal?

Some Nigerians have expressed concerns that President Tinubu may be out of touch with their harsh reality and this announcement comes off as a little bit tone-deaf. While Obi didn’t outrightly criticise the decision to buy a new aircraft, he seems to be more concerned about the timing. The New York Times report on economic hardship is still fresh in people’s memories and has become a subject of fear for many. It also doesn’t help that this report was met with a defensive response from Onanuga who claimed that the report was full of exaggerations and was “all gloom and doom”.

With petrol being sold for as high as ₦800 in some locations, some Nigerians can’t even afford to go out every day anymore—a struggle that can be traced back to the removal of fuel subsidies by the government.

President Tinubu has asked Nigerians to endure the struggles for now with promises that his reforms will pay off soon. One would expect that he will be willing to endure a bit of “struggle" too, even if that means flying business class until these reforms start paying off.

We expect that the presidency will release the proposed budget for the new aircraft soon and we will let you know as soon as it drops. In October 2022, former president Muhammadu Buhari budgeted ₦81 billion for the “maintenance” of the presidential air fleet. Judging by the depreciation of naira, Tinubu’s budget will possibly be higher.

Biden makes permanent residency for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens easier

Who else was today-years-old when they found out that marrying a citizen of the United States doesn’t automatically make you a green card holder?

We blame Nollywood for the misconception but according to Ashley de Azevedo, the president of American Families United, it's actually a lot more complicated. But President Joe Biden is about to make the process more straightforward.

The president has introduced new rules to make it easier for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to gain permanent residency or green cards. These rules are supposed to introduce simple solutions to the existing process for those who already qualify.

By normal standards, marrying a U.S. citizen can lead to citizenship. However, under the former rule, people who entered the U.S. illegally had to leave the country to apply for permanent residency, which usually meant leaving their families behind. Biden's new rules will change this by removing the need for these people to leave the U.S. as part of their application process.

The lives of 500,000 people could change…

The updated rule is expected to benefit around 500,000 people. The White House also added that approximately 50,000 stepchildren of U.S. citizens will also be eligible for residency.

These people will receive work authorisation and be allowed to stay in the U.S. for up to three years while they apply for permanent residency. Once they have permanent residency, they can eventually apply for citizenship if they choose.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, who is running against Biden, does not seem to share similar views. He made some controversial comments about immigrants, calling them a threat to the U.S economy and vowed to deport those in the country illegally if re-elected.

Car hits mourners during Malawi VP's funeral procession

It’s only the first half of 2024 and we’ve already experienced some of the most tragic losses of the year. A week ago, the vice president of Malawi, Saulos Chilima, died in an air crash that left the entire country in shock.

During his funeral on Sunday, a car trying to avoid the procession carrying his body hit a group of mourners.

According to the BBC, four people, including a pregnant woman, were killed, and twelve others were injured and are now in the hospital. Eyewitnesses said people wanted the procession to stop so they could see the coffin and pay their respects. Some of the mourners got violent and started throwing stones at government cars which resulted in the chaos that caused the crash.

While this was happening, a privately owned car turning to avoid the funeral convoy accidentally hit a group of mourners. The car was not part of the official funeral procession, as some reports claim.

This Week’s Big Question

“What’s that one book you think everybody should read at least once in their lifetime?”

Kay’s response -”I’m going to say Rich Dad, Poor Dad because that’s probably what a deep person would say.”

You can also share your response here and if it’s as interesting as Kay’s response, we’ll feature it in the next edition.

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