Tinubu Heeds Peter Obi’s Advice, Cuts Down Entourage On Foreign, Local Trips | READ FULL DETAILS

President Bola Tinubu has directed a 60% reduction on the number of entourage of all official of the Federal Government to state and foreign trips.

This directive was disclosed to state House correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday, by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.

Those affected by the new directive include; the president, vice president, First Lady, Ministries Departments and Agencies.

According to the directive, a host state will provide security details for every local trip embarked on by the Federal government.

For the president, not more than 20 delegations will move with him on a foreign trip.

Federal ministers embarking on an official foreign trip are required to move with only four delegations.

In Ngelale’s words;

“For heads of agency that will be limited to two members of staff allowed to travel on an official trip”.

“The President has now approved for official travel 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, a new limit of 25 members of staff are to accompany him on domestic trips within the country.”

“Similarly, President Tinubu limited the number of those to accompany the first lady on official trips within the country to 10 staff members.”

“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 on officials within the country, the same as the first lady.

“It is pertinent to note that there is a difference between the number of members of staff allowed to travel with the presiding officials on 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.

“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 concerning prudence and cost management, those days are over.”

Recall that the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has been making case for the federal government to reduce cost of governance.