President Tinubu Slashes Travel Cost by 60 percent, Reduces Number of Personnel on Foreign and Local Official Trips.

Barely a month after the Controversial Trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate change conference which generated a lot of controversy, President Bola Tinubu has directed a drastic slash in expenditure of Government on travels by 60 percent.

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President Ajuri Ngelale while Briefing StateHouse Correspondent at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa Abuja said by this decision, the President has directed that a specific number of persons are allowed to travel officially with the President, the Vice President, the First Lady, The Second Lady, Ministers and Head of Government Agencies and Parastatals.

According to the new directive, for foreign trips the President will go with a maximum of 20 persons, The Vice President 5 persons, the First Lady 5 Persons, Ministers 4 persons and head of Agencies 2 persons each.

In his words, ” President Tinubu has, by his most recent directive approved a massive cost cutting exercise that will touch across the entire Federal Government of Nigeria and the offices of the President himself, the Vice President and the office of the First Lady. It will be conducted in the following fashion.

” One, the official trips that will be undertaken within the country that is when Mr. President or the Vice President travels to any state within the country, the massive bills that accrued due to allowances and estacode for security detail coming from Abuja going and traveling into those states, will be massively cut due to the directive of the President, that the security outfits within states, whether it be police DSS, or branches of the military, will frontline his protective detail when he travels to those states, a major cost cutting initiative that will affect the Office of the Vice President as well as the office of the First Lady.

Additionally, when any international travel is being approved, the following limits have been placed on all ministers of the Federation. Four members of their staff, appointees and the like will be allowed to travel with a minister on official trip.

“For heads of agencies, that will be limited to two members of staff allowed to travel on an official trip. Furthermore, the numbers that the President has now approved for official travel with him that will apply to his principal staff are as follows: on international trips the President has directed that no more than 20 individuals be allowed to travel with him. That number will be cut down to five in the case of the First Lady.

“Additionally, the number in the entourage on official international trips for the Vice President will be cut to five, the number that will be placed as a limit on the wife of the Vice President is also five.

“In terms of Local trips, the President has approved a new limit of 25 members of staff to accompany him on domestic trips within the country. The Office of the First Lady is now limited to 10 staff members to accompany her on official trips within the country. The Vice President will be limited to 15 members of staff on official trips within the country, while his wife will be limited to 10 members of staff and officials within the country”

The Presidential Media Adviser added that ‘ It is pertinent to note that there is a difference between the number of members of staff allowed to travel with the presiding officials to international trips and those that are allowed for domestic. You will find that the numbers on international trips are less than those allowed on domestic trips. This is because international trips are far more expensive across the board and the President is determined to bring total sanity and prudence to the management of the Commonwealth of our people.”

Ajuri also noted that henceforth, the President is insistent that the notion of government wastage, the notion of recurrent expenditure being in excess, the notion that government officials will be allowed to conduct their affairs in a way that is different from what we are asking of Nigerian citizens with respect to prudence and Cost Management, those days are over.

He therefore added that the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation will ensure compliance by Ministries, Department and Agencies of Government.