Defence minister indicates Ghana does not have a presidential jet
Eugene Arhin announces plans to buy bigger presidential jet
The minority caucus has bared its teeth out at the government over its intention to purchase a new presidential jet.
Defence Minister, Dominic Ntiwul, speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday December 14, 2021 indicated that consultations were ongoing to acquire the new aircraft.
To this end, he said the ministry has made contacts with airplane manufacturing giants, Airbus and Boeing, who have stated that it will take 3 years to construct the plane thus the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, would not get to sit in it during his tenure.
“When I contacted both Boeing and Airbus, they told me that it would take about three years for them to be able to deliver a new aircraft to Ghana.
"What it simply means is that if I were to make a decision today and the Ghana Government was to have money for the Ministry of Defence to purchase an aircraft, the least time for the aircraft to arrive would be the first quarter of 2025. This current President [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] would not sit in the aircraft as President,” he said.
The minister was responding to a question posed by North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who wanted to know the updates on the announcement by director of Communications at the office of the president, Eugene Arhin, who disclosed in September that government was in the process of buying a bigger aircraft for the president's use.
But taking to social media, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa vowed that his side of the House would ‘frustrate’ government’s attempts to make the purchase of the jet just as it has done with the e-levy.
“A govt which claims to be facing one of the most difficult economic challenges of the modern era and for which it seeks to railroad an obnoxious and regressive E-Levy should not be holding consultations for the purchase of a new presidential jet. We shall “frustrate” this too, consistent with the Akufo-Addo Doctrine on priorities as contained in the parliamentary Hansard of 15 February, 2000,” he wrote on his Facebook timeline.
Meanwhile, Dominic Ntiwul has defended plans to purchase the new aircraft.
According to him, the country does not have a presidential jet but rather an exercise jet which is not for the sole use of the president.
“When you say presidential jet, Mr. Speaker, I have said it and I will continue to say that the is nothing called presidential jet. There are only two countries in the world that have presidential jet... one is the United States of America...only the president uses that jet,” he said.
Ghana doesn’t have presidential jet. What we have is an executive jet that’s why when you [Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa] were reading [the parliamentary Hansard of 15 February, 2000], the current president [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] at the time use the term executive jet. Executive jet does not mean it is for the sole use of the president. In America nobody can use Air Force 1 apart from the president and the vice. Even with that, the vice doesn’t use, it is the president who uses Airforce 1. So we have an executive jet and I’m saying to you that executive jet is used to do government business,” Dominic Ntiwul added.
However, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, responding to the statement by the Defence Minister, maintained that the country has had a total of five (5) presidential jets since the era of the country’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Dassault Falcon 900 Ex-Easy aircraft