In the last month, a story has been making the rounds in Nigeria about the private planes of Nigeria's elite. There were stories on the private planes of the bankers, the oil companies execs, and the pastors. The purchases of the planes were universally decried as an extravagance that we could do without in these economic times.

However unlike the media firestorm in America surrounding Citigroup's purchase of a private jet (which they eventually returned) there has been no comparative firestorm. Granted the "talking heads" media phenomenon in the states is miles apart from what it is here but we can whip up firestorms ofour own if we feel the need - see fuel deregulation and refinery privatization as examples.

Anyway all the organizations involved trotted out the standard soundings of cost effectiveness, convenience of scheduling and all that. Which of course are valid reasons, however this doesn't change the fact that it is extravagant.

While there is a "plague on both your houses" thing going on with everybody involved in the private plane saga, I feel that a special one should be devoted to the religious insitutions that indulged in the private planes.

The fact that a church can spend $28 million (N4 billion) on a private plane that seats sixteen people is insensitive to say the least. When the majority of your members are earning a small fraction of that, it doesn't seem like the best use of that cash no matter the "convinience factor." Of the top of my head I can think of at least ten uses for the money that would impact greatly on the lives of the individuals both spiritually and materially. Now my challenge to those of you who would justify the purchase as "not extravagant" is to think about what you would do with N4 billion if you were a pastor of a church in Nigeria and compare it to buying a jet.