Presidential monologue ( 13)

IN this instalment, I relate to the recent presidential ban on foreign trips by ministers, heads of departments, and agencies, at the expense of government, for three months in the first instance. The purpose of the ban is “cost reduction in governance and intended as a cost- saving measure without compromising government functions” albeit temporarily. Recall Mr President, you spent at least N3.4bn ($ 2.2m; £ 1.8m) on domestic and foreign travel in the first six months of your presidency – 36 per cent more than the budgeted amount for 2023 by some estimate. Your defence was based on the point that every trip you made was to attract foreign investment.

In the context of the dire economic situation in the country, it is good news from Aso Rock, the seat of the Nigerian government, and the president is to be applauded. To be sure, part of the agitation by Nigerians for a very long time is the need to cut the cost of governance that has tilted recurrent expenditure over capital expenditure with consequent development inertia. The economic fundamentals are not alright at the moment to allow such voyageours latitude that public officials whimsically do to earn estacode and build up their domiciliary/ foreign account reserves to the extent of travelling with side- chicks.

Let me digress and regale you with a story, Mr President. About twenty- six years ago, I was a doctoral student at the University of London. This period coincided with the implementation of the new public administration policy that meant the training of staff of some ministries. The prescription was that of the World Bank, and the training of officials of the Ministry of Finance was contracted to a company in the UK, and I was engaged in the faculty for the training exercise. Of those slated for training, only a few turned up at the training centre, others were busy opening bank accounts, and in the process, one of the trainees who never showed up at all lost his suitcase. There was hardly any return on investment.

The country’s external debt is about $ 41.6 billion as of September 2023, domestic debt stands at N55.93 trillion in Q3, 2023. Nigerians ask to pay more for their God- given wealth, crude oil, from which premium petroleum spirit and sundry other products are extracted. The value of the naira has plummeted to frightening levels courtesy of the Bretton Woods imposed policy on our neocolonial rulers who have equally compounded the situation by making the dollar their hands- on currency for dispensing gifts, bribes, and store of value of stolen public wealth. The ruling elite are so warped that they are hardly aware that the rest of the global south is binding together to de- dollarise the global economy and break the hegemony of the U. S. dollar. For them to spend dollars is a status symbol. What a drowning generation!

Before now, Mr President, you have become notorious for your foreign trips, by some math, two in a month, beaten only by Kenyan President William Ruto, whose tally stood at three in a month at the last count, earning him the sobriquet, “flying President”. Yours was even odious by the retinue of aids that go with you betraying decency for a country struggling on its feet due to gross misrule by the ruling elite. Things got to a head when you caused a scene at the occasion of the twenty- eighth Conference of Parties ( COP28) in the United Arab Emirates attended by about 590 Nigerian officials with the government concurring to having defrayed the expenses of 422 out of the 590 individuals in the delegation. Consequentially, you reduced the number of your delegation to 25 for local travel and 20 for international travel. Also, the pruning affected the security agents to the effect that those at the destination should provide security instead of security tag- on from Abuja. This step was also a right step in the right direction. However, you still need to reduce the delegation for foreign trips to 10 maximum but comprising your brain trust relating to the purpose of that trip.

Mr. President, you must cease to be “tourist- in- chief... while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity”, my apologies to Atiku Abubakar. It is not a difficult task at all. Remember President John Magufuli, Tanzania’s fifth president, of blessed memory, cutting costs by cutting foreign trips was one of the very few notable steps he took as president way back in 2015 to cut the cost of governance. He even exhorted government officials to visit villages and other rural parts of Tanzania to gain acquaintance with their problems. In his sixyear presidency, he never travelled outside Africa, for him, foreign trips were the reason for the appointment of a foreign minister.

All said, some observers, like the Kenyan foreign policy analyst Prof Macharia Munene, have argued in the case of President Ruto, that some of the trips are wasteful and others for personal glorification, but some may be necessary. In an interview with the BBC, he noted that “You have presidents who love to be in the air... Some of these trips are personal glorifications, not so much for the country.”