Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa says if President Nana Addo wants to bath in the sky then he should fly Emirates 1st class and not expensive private jets.
He made this comment following a revelation by Dominic Nitiwul on Wednesday in Parliament.
According to him the presidential jet has challenges such as limited luggage capacity, can’t handle long distance travel because it needs refueling.
He also raised concerns on Presidents inability to shower onboard the presidential jet.
“The decision to travel to long and multiple destinations such as the president travelling to France, Belgium and South Africa, will always require a larger aircraft even when the Falcon is airworthy…When the President is travelling with more than 20 people for a business trip…you will need more than just a Falcon, otherwise, the people will have to go more than a day ahead of the president to prepare themselves.
“The president himself must go more than a day ahead to prepare himself because no president can shower in this aircraft, so you can’t move from this aircraft straight into a meeting,” he said.
Hon. Okudzeto seems to have a better option for the president instead of the private jet he resorted to.
“The point must be made that you have so many options if you think that the Falcon is not big enough for you, as for you you like a large number of ministers, a large size of an entourage, you want to live large, that’s fine. If you want to do that, don’t do it at the taxpayers’ expense, that is our concern. Once it is taxpayers funds you are using then there are other economical options, you can fly commercial.
“If it’s about showers in the sky I’ve told you it’s Emirates first class and nobody will really be angry that our President has traveled first class, it’s the office we respect him, he must be comfortable. So you can travel first class and it will be far cheaper, we’ll not spend anywhere near even 10% of this £15,000 an hour for an aircraft. Even if you want to charter there are bigger aircrafts at far less a cost, there are cheaper options available than this,” the MP said.