ABUJA, April 6 (AFP) - Cuban President Fidel Castro offered to
send a plane for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for an
official visit and the G77 summit next week but was politely turned
down, Obasanjo's office said Thursday.
"The president declined this offer basically because it is
considered that it may not be in the interest of Nigeria that the
president should take a lift from the Cuban government," Okupe
said.
The spokesman said that Castro gave many reasons for offering to
fly Obasanjo to Cuba, one of which was that it would be an
"embarrassment" to see the leader of a powerful African nation
travelling by commercial plane, Okupe added.
But the Nigerian leader "still considered it easier to take a
commercial flight than to cede sovereignty and take another
country's plane, flying the flag of Cuba," the spokesman said.
Obasanjo said last month he would have to take a British Airways
flight Saturday night to Cuba via London and Jamaica after the
Nigerian parliament turned down a request for 89 million dollars to
buy a new presidential plane.
The request for a new plane came after the presidency learned
that the current 20-year-old presidential plane is considered too
oil and noisy to fly internationally under new aviation regulations
introduced in April, Okupe said.
Nigerian lawmakers, feuding with the president, called the
request inappropriate.
Obasanjo's spokesman said earlier the president will pay an
official visit to Cuba next week ahead of the G77 summit of
developing countries due to start Wednesday.
The Nigerian president will meet Castro and other government
officials during the visit Monday and Tuesday. Obasanjo last visited
Cuba last year shortly before taking power following his election
last February.
Nigeria is the chair of the G77 meeting which opens in Havana
Wednesday.

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