Presidency, Fayose Trade Words Over Buhari’s Numerous Foreign Trips

Following the insinuations that President Mohammadu Buhari has been wasting public funds on incessant foreign trips despite the obvious economic crises in the country, the Presidency has reacted saying that all the foreign trips embarked by the President were in the overall interest of the nation particularly in respect of the ongoing drive towards the recovery of public funds looted and transferred in different countries.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba disclosed this at the State House in Abuja on Monday assuring that the trips have already yielded monumental results adding that all the avenues that could be used to hide Nigeria’s fund lodged in various banks abroad have been blocked.

The Presidential spokesperson explained that on the administration’s declaration of war against corruption in NIgeria, the reasonable thing the government was supposed to do first and foremost should be to block all the avenues the looters would use to hide the fund or move them away from where they were deposited, hence a need to establish a working relationship with those countries where the money are kept.

In respect of this, he stated that the President has signed bilateral agreements with various countries knowing that the fight against corruption cannot be fought by a country alone especially knowing that all the funds are all in foreign bank accounts.    

 “Don’t be surprised that in the coming week or two, you will see high level security officials leaving Nigeria for the UAE to begin to give expression to our wish to enjoy this new cooperation between the two countries with a view to recovering stolen assets. There are numerous agreements we have also signed with them. Drugs, human trafficking and stolen assets that have been stolen abroad. So, the President wants to make it difficult for people, even when then steal from Nigeria, there would probably be no hiding place for stolen assets”, he said.

It would be recalled that several voices mostly of the opposition party have accused the President of extravagant expenditures of the public funds on meaningless foreign trip. Prominent among the accusers was Mr. Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti State. In one of his statements, he unequivocally stated that foreign trips would not solve Nigeria’s problem instead, the President should sit down in office to face his work adding that some of the trips could be assigned to the Vice President or any other government officials.

However, it could be recalled that the governor during the election period had leveled several allegations against the President’s health status which implied that Buhari was not healthy enough to govern the nation and presented several photographs to show that the President might not last in office even up to the late President Shehu Musa Yar’Aadua on account of certain ailments. Unfortunately, since inauguration as the President, Buhari has been on active duty taking responsibility knowing that Nigerians would not accept any excuses on the failure of the administration to produce visible results that would justify his ‘Change agenda.’

In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and News Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said that “the President should rather listen more to those of us who criticize him instead of those hailing every of his wrong steps either because of what they intend to gain or for fear of persecution.

“Foreign countries won’t solve our problems for us and the President’s incessant foreign trips is already bleeding the economy with about $1 million being spent per trip.”

“Conservatively, about $1 million goes into every of the foreign trips and the way the President is going, foreign trips alone might gulp 20 percent of the Federal Government budget and that will be disastrous for the dwindling economy of the country.

“It is even more worrisome that while the economy is already in shamble and insecurity pervades the land with Boko Haram burning Nigerians, including children alive in the North East, our President is busy globetrotting.

“From available records, in June 2015 alone, the President travelled to Niger Republic, Chad, Germany and South Africa. Also in 2015, the President travelled to United States of America in July, Benin Republic in August, Ghana and France in September, India in October, Iran, France and United States of America in November and in December, he travelled to South Africa, Benin Republic.

“This year alone, President Buhari has travelled to the United Arab Emirate, Kenya, Ethiopia and he is leaving for France and United Kingdom today to spend four days abroad.

“In most of these trips, about $500,000 is spent on estacode, transportation, accommodation, honorarium, media coverage, contingency and other expenses on accompanying Presidency officials. The Presidential Air Fleet, which includes fuelling of the planes and allowances for crew members as well as the President’s estacode per night and those of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his aides is said to be in the range of $500,000.

“Out of his eight months as President of Nigeria, two months have been spent outside the country, and one wonders how a country like Nigeria can progress with its president spending the better part of his time abroad.

“Mr President is therefore advised to focus more on governing Nigeria from home because foreign countries won’t solve our problems for us. He should fulfil his promise of leading the fight against Boko Haram from the front. Most importantly, the President should pay more attention to the ailing economy of the country while he carries on with genuine fight against corruption," Fayose said.