A sum of N701 million has been spent on foreign trips for the First Lady, Remi Tinubu, in just three months, Politics Nigeria has learnt.
This lavish spending comes at a time when many Nigerians are struggling to make ends meet due to growing hunger and economic hardship.
The investigation revealed that the Federal Government spent the funds on trips to five countries, including the United States, France, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and the United Kingdom.
The breakdown of the expenses shows that the government paid out: N77.6 million for the First Lady’s trip to the United States on November 17, 2023; N149.7 million for her trip to France on February 24, 2024; N202.3 million for her trip to Mozambique on March 15, 2024; N144.5 million for her trip to Ethiopia on the same day; N126.2 million for her trip to London.
Furthermore, the government spent an additional N314.2 million on six programs organized by the First Lady within four months.
This includes: N131.9 million for event decoration; N107.6 million for multimedia services.
The total amount spent on the First Lady’s trips and programs over seven months is N1.014 billion, checks using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, reveals.
Reacting to this revelation, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) expressed outrage, stating that such excessive spending on the First Lady’s office, which is not recognized by the Constitution, is unacceptable.
CACOL’s Executive Director, Debo Adeniran, called on Nigerians to speak out against this “ugly trend” of frivolous spending by the executive.
He said, “It is more than profligacy. It is actually a misappropriation of funds because the office of the First Lady doesn’t 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.
“Otherwise, 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.”