Oct 1: FG Orders 53 Gold iPhones For N12.5m Each

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The cash crunch presumably afflicting the federal government has not prevented it from placing an order for 53 gold iPhones to mark Nigeria’s 53rd independence anniversary.

A United Kingdom-born businessman based in Dubai, Amjad Ali, unwittingly disclosed this when he spoke to the Independent of London.

“We will engrave them with the coat of arms, a shield and two horses,” he said. The 42-year-old Ali supplies royal families, governments, and minted customers across Russia, China and the Middle East with gold-plated devices that cost from £3,000 to £50,000 (about N780, 000 to N12.5m).

“We strip the units down and then plate them in copper, nickel and then pure gold,” he told the Independent. “We have limited units per region and each is numbered and placed in a handmade wooden box with a certificate of authenticity and wax seal.”

Ali typically delivers 50 devices a month, including Blackberries and iPads, but orders rose to more than 300 a month when the iPhone 5 was launched last year. He expects greater demand as the sixth-generation device was announced yesterday.

 The federal government has refused to meet the financial demands of striking university lecturers, claiming that meeting such demands would leave the government broke.

Minister of Information Mr Labaran Maku had said that activities of the federal government would be grounded if all the demands of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities were met.

Nigeria gained political independence from Britain on October 1, 1960, and has since marked the date with fanfare.

Reports of dwindling foreign reserves have been denied by the federal government. Nigeria is facing financial difficulties as crude oil theft and endemic corruption continue to bore huge holes in the nation’s coffers.

But the federal government has maintained silence over report that it plans to import 23 iPhones for the independence anniversary billed to take place on the first of next month.

Effort to reach Special Adviser to the president on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati last night was futile as he could not be reached on phone.