Despite consistent calls for a reduction in the cost of governance, the State House has spent a total sum of N7.4bn to purchase foreign currencies and about 16 vehicles within four months, investigation by Saturday PUNCH has revealed.
In their 17 months in office, both President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, have undertaken no fewer than 41 trips across 26 countries, collectively spending 180 days or six months on foreign engagements.
Tinubu, who had the longer mileage, has logged 124 days abroad, visiting 16 countries on 29 trips. He has also accumulated over 127 flight hours.
Meanwhile, Shettima has spent 56 days abroad, visiting 10 countries on 12 unique and recurrent trips. He has also accumulated over 93 flight hours.
A report by GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending shows that in Tinubu’s first six months in office, specifically between June and December 2023, the State House spent not less than N3.4bn on both his local and foreign travels.
The expended sum, the finding shows, is 36 per cent more than the N2.49bn earmarked for the president’s travel expenditure in the 2023 budget.
Similarly in the first three months of 2024, a total of N5.24bn was spent by the State House on local and foreign travel expenses of the trio of Tinubu, Shettima and First Lady Remi Tinubu.
A sum of N1.35bn was spent as provision for presidential trips and other related expenses between January and March, N3.53bn was expended for the purchase of foreign currencies during 10 international trips, while N637.85m was disbursed to two travel agencies for the purchase of air tickets for presidential local and foreign trips.
This was after the president had approved the sum of N3bn for the purchase of three bulletproof Mercedes Benz S-class 580 and the supply of other vehicles to the State House.
However, checks by our correspondent using GovSpend also showed that between July and October this year, the State House has spent not less than N4.2bn to purchase foreign currencies for various presidential trips.
A sum of N38.9m was spent on July 13, and N1.49bn was doled out in four tranches on July 17. On the same day, about N119m was paid out in two batches. A total sum of N589m was also spent in three tranches on October 11, while about N1.4bn also was expended in three additional tranches on October 28.
Meanwhile, on August 18, the State House paid one Laralek Ultimate Limited the sum of N3,427,720,930 for the supply of 16 2023/2024 Model of Toyota Prado V6 vehicles. It also spent a total sum of N1.5bn to purchase air tickets for local and international travels during the same period.