Top Government Officials Including President Tinubu To Pay Fees At Airport Gates Across Nigeria

Top government officials in Nigeria, including President Bola Tinubu, his deputy Kashim Shettima and others, from now will have to pay fees at the airport gates across the country.

After a meeting of the Federal Executive Council in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo made the announcement to the State House correspondents, noting that earlier top officials were exempted from paying the fees, but it won't be the same going forward.

"For the aviation sector, we presented two memos and got two approvals," he said, Premium Times reported. "The first approval that we sought and obtained was with respect to mandatory payments of access fees by all visitors at our federal airport tollgates nationwide."

He emphasized that there won't be any exemptions in the future. He recalled that when Tinubu took over the office, the administration noticed that all kinds of VIPs would approach the government for complimentary e-tags or complimentary stickers for visiting airports so that they don't have to pay access, parking or essential services fees.

"And I told myself and my team, I said not under my watch. It will not happen. If this tradition has been existing for years, I will not allow it to happen. Because it is inconceivable that in our country it is the VIPs that don't pay for services but it is the poor men that pay for services," Keyamo said.

He added, "In fact, guess what? Our memo says with the exception of the president and the vice president. And the president overruled me and said he and the vice president will pay. He said everybody."

Furthermore, the minister noted that the aviation sector lost billions of naira because of such exemptions, disclosing that the negative figure at the end of the day from the complimentary e-tags is 82%.

"Where we are supposed to have a 100% contract the e-costs from these e-tags that we print, it is only 18% that we now end up selling. That is how bad it is. 18% and 82% of these e-tags are given out free of charge to VIPs," he explained.

He once again emphasized that the sector is facing loss in billions of naira, not millions every year because of such VIPs. He urged VIPs to pay for the services to ensure that the infrastructure is improved at the airport and the toilets remain clean.