President Bola Tinubu’s administration has faced criticism for excessive spending on travel allowances and expenses, with various ministries and agencies spending over N1.8 billion between July and September 2024.
The ministries and agencies involved include the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Police Affairs, Ministry of Youth Development, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Office of the Auditor General, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Technical Aid Corps;
Others are: Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
The breakdown of expenditures reveals N755.88 million spent on Duty Tour Allowances and N1.04 billion on air tickets and estacodes for foreign trips.
The top spenders include the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, which spent N322 million, the Ministry of Finance, which spent N187.2 million, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, which spent N150 million, and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which spent N108 million.
This spending occurred despite President Tinubu’s three-month ban on government-funded trips in April 2024, aimed at curbing rising travel expenses.
The ban, communicated through a letter from the President’s Chief of Staff on March 2, 2024, was intended to ensure ministers focused on their mandates. However, the ban expired in June, and spending resumed shortly after.
Critics have condemned the expenditures as excessive.
The Chairman of the Centre for Accountability and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, stated, “We have advised the government that in these austere times, officials should refrain from wasteful spending. While we can excuse the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy because it is new and still learning, other ministries, like the Ministry of Women Affairs, have been operating for years and should know better.”
The Executive Director of the Rule of Law Accountability and Advocacy Centre, Okechukwu Nwaguma, echoed this sentiment, highlighting “a misallocation of government resources” and calling for stricter policies regarding travel and expenditure.
The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, expressed disappointment that these trips had not yielded significant foreign investment for Nigeria. He stressed the importance of ensuring public funds are used effectively and in the best interest of the nation.
Efforts to obtain comments from government officials were unsuccessful. The Director of Information and Public Relations for the Ministry of Finance, Mohammed Manga, was unreachable, while the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy’s spokesperson, Olujimi Oyetomi, declined to comment.