Former presidential candidate Peter Obi has condemned President Bola Tinubu’s administration for spending ₦300 billion on an additional presidential jet rather than investing it in 4,000 primary healthcare centres.

Mr Obi also lamented that Mr Tinubu’s government spent ₦39 billion refurbishing the National Conference Centre in Abuja and ₦21 billion rebuilding the vice-president’s residence, rather than purchasing standard ambulances, which cost about ₦150 million each.

The former Anambra governor, in a post on X, narrated details of his meeting with a nursing school graduate on an Air Peace flight from Imo to Lagos.

Mr Obi noted that the lady said something that struck him deeply.

“I now understand what happened to Boxer Joshua. This is why there was no ambulance to rush him to a nearby hospital,” Mr Obi quoted her as saying, while noting that she wondered aloud whether it was simply because the country is poor.

The politician, however, replied that he was in pain and encouraged her not to lose hope, noting that the country is not poor but is poorly governed.

“A standard ambulance costs about ₦150 million ($100,000). Nigeria spent ₦39 billion refurbishing the National Conference Centre in Abuja and ₦21 billion rebuilding the vice-president’s residence. Those two projects alone, ₦60 billion, could have provided about 400 brand-new ambulances, roughly 11 per state, including the FCT. Had 11 functional ambulances existed in Ogun State, one might have been available for Joshua.

“Building a primary healthcare centre in a community costs about ₦75 million. Yet we spent about ₦300 billion ($200 million) on an additional presidential jet, money that could have built over 4,000 primary healthcare centres, about 110 per state. The only visible value the jet adds is the ability of the President to occasionally disappear without the public knowing where he is, as is the case now,” Mr Obi explained.