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Cost of War: FG needs to buy just 18 Gallons of Fuel for Fighter Jets, to spend 15million everyday

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has defended the approval of $1billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), which would be used to combat insecurity and insurgency in the Country, saying the Government spends N15 Million daily on fuel used by Fighter Jets to fight Boko Haram.

Speaking at a conference in Lagos, Mohammed said the “asymmetric war” costs a lot of money, as aircrafts consume 64,021.08 litres of fuel per day amounting to N15.153m daily, N20.19 million was spent on spares for the aircraft between January and November.

“Since we are using the air force as a reference point here, what about the cost of acquiring air force platforms? For example, the twelve Super Tuscano aircraft recently approved for sale to Nigeria by the US government costs a whopping $490 million, yet this is government-to-government contract, and the costs of spares, ammunition and other consumables are not included.

“The costs stated above are for the air force alone and restricted to operations in the north-east alone.”

The Minister also stated that, just like Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo noted, the money is not used for insurgency alone, it would also be used to tackle kidnapping, illegal oil bunkering, cattle rustling and many security-related situations facing the Country.

“We have not even talked of the army or the navy, which are also fully involved in tackling internal security challenges in the country. Neither have we included the operating cost of the Nigerian air force in the Niger Delta to curb pipeline vandalism, in the north-west to contain cattle rustlers, in the north-central to curtail herdsmen and farmers clashes or kidnappings, armed robberies and separatism in other parts of the country.”

ETN24 had earlier published an analysis of the plausibility of the Government spending such a huge amount on insurgency, citing what other Countries like America and China spend to fight armed groups.

In the U.S, the least Fighter Jet cost, an unmanned Predator Drone, cost $1,500 per flight hour (N540,000.00) to run.

The A-10 “Wharthog” is known to be the least in per-flight-hour due to its need for little maintenance. It cost $11,000 (N3,956,834.53) per hour. Running the Wharthog for 24 hours will cost about 96 million daily.

As at 2016, it was reported that the Super Tucano cost $10 million dollars, and it varies depending on the configuration. Some other Aircraft cost as high $70,00 – 135,000 per hour. Also, the fuelling of an aircraft cost $10 per litre (Aviation Gas) and an F-16 consumes one litre on a 1.05km journey. If it travels on a 1000km distance, it would burn 950 litres of fuel; that is $9500 (N3,420,000.00), making the cost of fuel for just 12 hours 40 million naira.

The Minister also noted that the engine oil and plug of some aircraft amounted to N3.86m monthly.

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