President Tinubu has implemented a 60 percent reduction in the travel expenses for government officials, both domestically and internationally.
Ajuri Ngelale, the presidential spokesman, shared this information with State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
The directive, aimed at cost-cutting measures for official travels, will significantly impact the travel budgets of the President, Vice President, First Lady, and ministers.
He said, “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 details 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.”
Specifically, the revised official travel allocations for foreign trips are as follows: President – 20 persons, Vice President – 5 persons, First Lady – 5 persons. For local trips, the allocated numbers are: President – 25 persons, Vice President – 15 persons, and First Lady – 10 persons.
He said every minister is limited to having just four members of staff on any foreign trip while CEOs of government agencies are limited to just two.
Ngelale added that the secretary to the government of the federation, George Akume, will monitor the implementation of the directive for compliance and warned that anyone violating the directive would face consequences.
He explained “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.
“As a result of this, the President has directed that every federal MDA also including the office of the president itself and the Office of the Vice President as well as the offices of the First and Second Ladies, are affected and bound by this directive of the president.
“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.
“The President is insistent that the prudence of government officials must reflect the prudence and efficiency of the Nigerian citizens and this is the directive of the President.
“With respect to the adherence to this most recent directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I believe we do not need to convince the officers of the federal government of Nigeria of the seriousness of the President with respect to how he will implement his directives.
“If there is anybody who feels that the directive of the President is not binding on them, who feels that the President will not uphold this directive in implementation and seeks to test it, they will do so at their own peril,” he added.