Suspension of foreign travel and government insincerity

The reported suspension of foreign travels by public officials in the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government (MDAs) is, for the reasons adduced, a welcomed step. If faithfully observed (and this is necessary), the country can save a tidy sum in foreign exchange applicable to more useful purposes that serve public instead of private interest. However, public pessimism over the announcement appears not to be misplaced because in the past, government had failed to live by its words or promise. Even now, sections of the public have rightly criticised a recent overseas workshop held by the Accountant-General of the Federation and the 36 state commissioners of finance across the country.

A ‘Presidential Directive to Suspend Public Funded Foreign Trips by Government Officials’ gave several reasons that include first, the current economic realities in the country, second, the need for public officials to concentrate on their jobs here and now for ‘effective service delivery’, three, the need for responsible fiscal management. Arguably the soundest reason offered is ‘cost reduction in governance’. No one can reasonably disagree with these justifications. In any case, it forms part of the promises contained in the Tinubu/Shettima jointly signed ‘Agenda for a Better Nigeria’.

The suspension of foreign travel is only an aspect of an overarching issue of public concern, namely the excessive cost of governance.  Public officials, as interpreted in the extant constitution begin from ‘the President of the Federation’ and state governors through officers in the Legislature, the Judiciary at all levels of government, and the security forces, to board members and staff of corporations where federal, state and local governments have controlling shares. The expenditure incurred by the persons who occupy these high offices, along with their aides and hangers-on constitute an unjustifiably huge portion of the overhead of governments. In the final analysis, they draw an unfair share from our common purse.

Responsive government has good reason as well as a constitutional obligation to apply resources judiciously as enjoined in the relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution including that the State shall ‘harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, dynamic, and self-reliant economy’; and ‘the material resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good.’

Alas, Nigerian public officials, as instruments of ‘the State’ to serve the greatest good of the highest number of citizens have repeatedly, evidentially, focused on serving self-interest first and above the public interest.  It is a betrayal of both public trust and their oaths of office. Frivolous foreign travels under one guise or another is one way that officials waste public money on themselves and their hangers-on. It is not uncommon for MDAs to package foreign training programmes for their staff whereas such knowledge is available locally at far less cost to public treasury.

Civil society and rights groups have criticised the Accountant General of the Federation, commissioners of finance of the 36 states of the federation and other government officials for choosing to hold a workshop in the United Kingdom at a time when the economy is experiencing a major downturn. The Office of the AGF reportedly held a workshop on Public Financial Management and International Public Sector Accounting Standards in London, UK. The workshop titled “Public Financial Management and IPSAS,” was reportedly held at Copthorne Tara Hotel, Kensington London, from March 4 to March 9, 2024.

Other contributors to the high cost of governance in this country include opaque staff remuneration packages in government-owned corporations, budgetary padding, repeated annual purchases, the mindless creation of MDAs to find ‘jobs for the boys’,  and the funding of constitutionally illegal structures such as offices of first ladies at federal and state levels.

It needs to be recalled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) party made opacity in public spending and waste in government a campaign issue in 2014. It promised to ‘restructure government for a leaner, more efficient and adequately compensated public service’; and to ‘require full disclosure in all media outlets of all government contracts over N100 million before award and during implementation at regular intervals’.  Under the Buhari government, things got ridiculously worse including assigning, in January 2020, a presidential plane to take his daughter for a research visit in Bauchi State.

The office of the First Lady is unknown to the Constitution and is not elected by the people for any accountable public office. Yet, Nigerian public officials not only invest the wives of the president and state governors with legally indefensible authority and power but with large budgetary allocations to boot.  Buhari had, during his election campaign vowed to disallow the office of ‘First Lady’ and all the costly appurtenances that go with it. Under his watch, wives of some state governors jetted out to a Middle Eastern country to present a birthday cake to his wife in March 2022.

Mr. Bola Tinubu wrote in his ‘Renewed Hope 2023’ manifesto that if the people entrusted him with presidential power, he would ‘streamline the amount that government spends on itself’, would ‘fight corruption, reduce bureaucracy, streamline agencies, and decrease inefficiency and waste’, ‘[weed] out ghost workers…ghost projects and expenditures from the [Nigerian government] system’. It is regrettable that in his first year in office, there is little to assure Nigerians that the wasteful Buhari years are not a thing of the past.

In October 2023, a Tinubu son flew a presidential plane maintained at public expense to watch a game of polo in Kano. In December last year, Nigeria’s delegation to the COP28 in Dubai was reportedly the third largest along with China’s. By common sense, this size of representation cannot be justified because Nigeria ranks very low as a contributor to the causes of climate change.

The 2024 federal budget makes humongous sums available to federal legislators’ so-called ‘constituency projects’, besides the billions already expended for luxury vehicles to each one, and for dubious renovations. Truth be told, maintaining Nigeria’s public officers is a major contribution to the economic adversity of this republic. It must stop.  The suspension of foreign travel is in order. However, we call on President Tinubu to go far beyond that; he should implement a comprehensive cost-cutting process across all components of government. This is one major way that funds can be freed for economic development. To this end, the President must lead the way not by words and official memos alone, but by action.

That Nigerian is living far above its means is true, but the culprits are a parasitic small percentage of the population feeding fat to the detriment of the increasingly lean majority.