By Olawale Lamina
Following criticisms of President Bola Tinubu and his administration frequent foreign trips, the Federal Government says It will introduce a three-month ban, aimed at stopping ministers and other government functionaries from going on officially sponsored foreign trips.
A report by the BBC on this matter quoted Tinubu’s chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila as saying that the measure the was motivated by the president’s “concerns about the rising cost of travel expenses” by public officials.
The proposed ban on foreign trips by government officials, the report says will come into effect on 1 April, 2024.
Recall that, frequent foreign trips since Tinubu became Nigeria’s President had set tongues wagging,against the backdrop of weak domestic currency, inflation and other economic challenges facing the country.
President Tinubu and his administration came under serious opposition especially by the Netizens ( social media commentators), after his administration had sponsored over 400 people to attend the COP28 climate conference in Dubai last November.
Tinubu, since inauguration in May 2023, had embarked on over 15 foreign trips, which critics argued amounted to spending about 3.4bn naira ($2.2m; £1.8m) on domestic and foreign travels in the first six months he took the reigns of government. The amount, analysts say is about 36 per cent above. This Was cited by the Punch newspaper in January, as indicated by GovSpend, a civic tech platform that specializes in tracking government spending.
But the administration has at different times through officials defended its foreign travels as being pivotal to mitigating Nigeria’s economic challenges, instead of being viewed as reckless spending by the critics.
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