Nigerians have frowned at President Bola Tinubu's frequent foreign travels amid the current economic challenges occasioned by his administration's policies.
Leadership Sunday reports that the economic policies of the current administration have sent the cost of living skyrocketing, with hikes in the prices of goods and services after the government removed the fuel subsidies and floated the naira against the United States dollar.
However, despite these economic challenges and President Bola Tinubu's plea to Nigerians to tighten their belts and make sacrifices now for a better future, he has travelled out of the country about 14 times since January 2024.
This has expectedly attracted condemnations from Nigerians.
StatiSense stated on X (formerly Twitter) that President Tinubu opened the year's with a travel to France on 24th January; Ethiopia on 15th February; Qatar on 29th February; Senegal on 2nd April and the Netherlands on 23rd April, 2024.
Other countries visited are Saudi Arabia, 26th April; Chad, 23rd May; South Africa,18th June; Ghana, 18th June; Ghana, 20th July; Equatorial Guinea, 14th August; France, 19th August; China, 29th August; United Kingdom, 6th September, and United Kingdom, 2nd October, 2024.
Speaking on President Tinubu's incessant foreign travels, the general secretary, Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTI), Olumide Ohunayo, said the nation incurs huge bills from aircraft fuelling, cost of maintenance and payment of navigational charges to the countries visited.
Ohunayo, who is the director of Research, Zenith Travel and Tour, said 14 foreign trips in less than 10 months is wasteful, especially at a time government is implementing tough economic policies.
"Fourteen foreign trips in a year is unfair because the president can't tell us to tighten our belt by introducing measures such removal of fuel subsidy, floating of naira and other extreme economic measures. However, we need sacrifice from the leaders, especially the executive. We can't at this time be spending so much on travel.
"The president just came back from China, and he passed through England and France; now, he told us he's going on holiday to England with a new jet when the masses are groaning. We would have expected him to be in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), an official trip that would have been more beneficial than wasting this fund on fueling, maintenance costs, and the operation of the presidential jet for vacation.
"He can't ask us to tighten our belts and the government is wasting money on vacation. The President and his ministers are not encouraging us; they have defeated the purpose of the economic situation in the country," Ohunayo stated.
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For his part, the chief executive officer, Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), said on a trip, the president spends a minimum of 50,000 litres of aviation fuel, Jet A1.
According to him, if the president's trip is not official, the aircraft will be billed navigational, parking and landing charges at the destination airports.
He said logistics for the crew and others in the president's entourage should also be taken into consideration.
"If he travels to London and returns, the aircraft will make use of nothing less than 25,000 litres of Jet A1, so going and coming at $1 per litre is $50,000 per trip, and when we multiply by N1,500 (N75 million), we all know what we will get. That is aside from navigational charges and hotel accommodations for the crew and others that followed him.
"The government will pay air navigation charges, especially if the trip is not official, and they will also go through some countries. These are things that can easily be calculated if we multiply by the number of travels," Ojikutu stated.
When LEADERSHIP Sunday contacted the special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on his phone number to speak on the matter, he declined to make any comment.
Even though there was an indication that he had read the message on his WhatsApp, Onanuga did not respond to enquiries about the president's trips and their economic benefits to Nigeria.
