NPP Cannot Break Two Term Jinx With President’s Luxurious Private Jet Travels

…former NPP Nasara Coordinator

A former National Coordinator of the Nasara Club of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has warned that the party cannot win the 2024 election and break the eight-year power rotation tradition with the obscenity of the President’s luxurious travels.

Abubakar Suleman, alias ‘Laku Laku’ advises his party to forget their fanciful vow to break the so-called eight-year jinx if the President will continue to abandon the presidential jet and rather rent private jets at US$14,000 per hour.

 “You cannot break the 8 when we are hiring private jets,” he told Accra-based TV XYZ.

Laku Laku pointed out that it is unacceptable for the government to do that when there is a functioning presidential jet.

President Akufo-Addo has recently been in the news for abandoning the presidential jet and renting a luxurious private jet for his travels, including to Germany, the UK and the US.

North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, raised the issue after the trips on the hired jet had cost the state £14,000 per hour and over Ghc10million cumulatively.

Earlier this year, Okudzeto Ablakwa had revealed that President Akufo-Addo hired a private jet at the cost of ¢2.8 million on his travels to France, Belgium and South Africa at the expense of tax-burned Ghanaians.

He filed a question, and Parliament summoned Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, to answer questions on the cost and why Ghana’s own presidential jet was not used.

The Minister justified the president’s decision to rent the aircraft, arguing that the capacity of the presidential aircraft can no longer carry the president’s entourage.

“The decision to travel particularly to long and multiple destinations such as the president travelling to France, Belgium, South Africa and back to Ghana especially during this Covid time will always require a larger capacity aircraft such as a DBKJ or an aircraft ATJ 319 even when the Falcon is air ready,” the Defense Minister told Parliament on June 16.