In the span of three months, the Federal Government reportedly spent approximately N701m to fund the foreign trips of the country\u2019s First Lady, Remi Tinubu, to five countries<\/p>\n
Recall that in 2023, the Federal Government allocated N1.5bn for the procurement of vehicles for the Office of the First Lady.<\/p>\n
This budgetary allocation was outlined in the N2.1tn supplementary budget for 2023 approved by the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
A breakdown of the budget shows the government planned to spend N2.9bn on sport utility vehicles for the Presidential Villa and another N2.9bn to replace operational vehicles for the Presidency.<\/p>\n
Former Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, however, claimed that the N1.5bn budgeted for vehicles was for the Presidency and not for the First Lady\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
However, using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses Federal Government\u2019s spending, showed that the government paid out the sum of N700,707,532 over three months for the First Lady\u2019s foreign trips to five countries, including two African nations.<\/p>\n
On November 17, 2023, the government, through the State House headquarters transit account, released the sum of N77,659,888 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($94,314) for the First Lady\u2019s trip to the United States.<\/p>\n
On February 24, 2024, the government, through the State House headquarters transit account, paid the sum of N149,794,284 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($152,831) for the First Lady\u2019s trip to France on January 4, 2024.<\/p>\n
On March 15, 2024, the sum of N202,386,198 was also paid by the government through the State House account for the purchase of foreign exchange ($126,834) for the First Lady\u2019s trip to Mozambique that month.<\/p>\n
On the same day, the government paid N144,571,785 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($96,118) for the First Lady\u2019s trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 9, 2024.<\/p>\n
The government, through the same State House account, paid out the sum of N126,295,377 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($83,967) for the First Lady\u2019s trip to London that month.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the government spent a total sum of N314,231,472 on six programmes of the First Lady within four months.<\/p>\n
On May 24, 2024, Rock of Ages Total Events Centre Ltd received the sum of N131,921,786 for full-scale decoration of State House events for the First Lady\u2019s programmes for women, youth, and children.<\/p>\n
On May 29, 2024, the State House paid N107,630,000 to Makeway Nigeria Limited for the provision of multimedia and related services during the First Lady\u2019s programmes for women, youth, and children.<\/p>\n
This indicates that a total sum of N1,014,939,004 has been spent by the government on the First Lady\u2019s trips and programmes over seven months altogether.<\/p>\n
Reacting, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership said it was out of place to spend such a humongous amount on the First Lady\u2019s office, which isn\u2019t recognised by the constitution.<\/p>\n
However the Executive Director of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, said the complacency of the National Assembly has criminally empowered the executive to spend the national treasury on frivolities, and the only way Nigerians can stop the ugly trend is to consistently speak out against it.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cIt is more than profligacy. It is actually a misappropriation of funds because the office of the First Lady doesn\u2019t exist in our constitution and is not supposed to be appropriated for. So, every appropriation that is made for that office is illegal. It is just because our National Assembly is complacent. They are not performing their oversight functions the way they should.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, everybody who dips his or her hand into the national coffers to fund any project that is not in accordance with the dictates of our constitution has committed an offence. If it is elected government personnel, it is an impeachable offence. So, it is out of place for such a humongous amount.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that the frivolous spending by the government has given the masses no reason to believe the numerous promises of lifting them out of the current hardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigerians cannot reason with the government because they (the government) have not set their priorities right. They spend on frivolities rather than on things that will improve the lives of the people. So, no matter how genuine the government\u2019s intention is in redeeming the economy, they are not showing us those signals as of now. Nigerians should begin to agitate in the right direction, and constitutionality must be a sine qua non in everything the government does,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Also reacting, the Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekper, said there is no law in the country that supports the First Lady\u2019s office, and it is grossly illegal for the Federal Government to deploy scarce national resources for any activity related to the office.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThe first question you should ask is whether the money is provided in the budget and whether it is proper to make provisions for a purported office that is not recognized in the constitution or any law of Nigeria. I am not aware of any constitutional provision creating the office of the First Lady, nor am I aware of any law creating the office. So, what they are doing is clearly illegal. It is an abuse of office, especially if it is funded from the public treasury unless she brings the money from her private purse. But if it is from taxpayers\u2019 money, it is an abuse of office.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the span of three months, the Federal Government reportedly spent approximately N701m to fund the foreign trips of the country\u2019s First Lady, Remi Tinubu, to five countries Recall that in 2023, the Federal Government allocated N1.5bn for the procurement of vehicles for the Office of the First Lady. This budgetary allocation was outlined in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48550,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48538\/revisions\/48550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}