President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and all other high-state officials will now be required to pay TOLL gate fees or use the e-tag system at all 24 federal airports in Nigeria.
This was a decision reached at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting today Tuesday, May 14, at the State House, Abuja. The council is chaired by President Bola Tinubu. They have been meeting since Monday in a two-day special session.
The new directive was announced by Mr Festus Keyamo, (SAN), Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management.
Keyamo said the FEC approved the cancellation of all exemptions for VIPs based on a memorandum he submitted. He detailed the humongous financial losses to his ministry and government from the exemptions.
Before now the ministry had been losing approximately 82% of the projected revenue annually, according to the minister. He said the estimate financial loss was about N10 billion annually. The loss, he claimed, handicaps his ministry’s ability to provide quality services and maintain operational standards at Nigerian airports.
“No more exemption”, he announced. “When we came to the office, we met a tradition on the ground where at the end of the year, all manners of VIPs would approach us for what they call complimentary e-tags or complimentary stickers. Whereby you see them coming into our airports nationwide. They don’t pay the access fees.
“They don’t pay for parking, they don’t pay for essential services at airports, and they are VIPs. And I told myself on 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.”
Tinubu Rejects Presidential Exemption
Keyamo further clarified that his original memo exempted the president and his vice, but Mr Tinubu rejected the presidential exemption. Tinubu insisted that he and his vice would be bound by the same rules.
“Our memo says except for the President and the Vice President the President overruled me and said he and the Vice President will pay, he said everybody”.
Finally, the minister disclosed that the Council directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to issue a service-wide circular informing all government agencies and VIP’s around the country of the cancellation of these exemptions. He said his ministry will also do a follow-up correspondence to all concerned to ensure immediate compliance.
However, the minister recommends that some institutions like the military could buy tags in bulk and distribute to their personeels. That way individual VIP’s from those institutions will not need to pay each time they go to or from the airports. “Buy the yearly tags for all your officers, you have the money pay us, so that we can improve your services at the airport”, he said
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