Breaking: Tinubu reduces entourage on international trips to 20 officials

The official entourage for both domestic and international travel will be reduced by 60%, according to “cost-cutting” measures agreed by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday.

This was disclosed during a Tuesday briefing for State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja by Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s Special Advisor on Media and Publicity.

According to Ngelale, the instruction was applicable to all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, as well as the offices of the President, Vice President, First Lady, and Vice President’s wife.

He declared, “President Bola Tinubu has approved that, going forward, he will neither accept nor permit large security delegations to follow him from Abuja, which will result in significant bills for estacode and duty allowances.”

“The President of Nigeria, the Vice President, and the Office of the First Lady have all approved a massive cost-cutting exercise that will affect the entire Federal Government of Nigeria.” The following is how it will be carried out.

“The President has issued a directive allowing no more than 20 people to accompany him on foreign trips. The First Lady’s case will reduce that number to five. Additionally, there will be a five-person entourage accompanying the vice president on official foreign trips. Five is also the number that will be set as a ceiling for the vice president’s wife.

“With regard to domestic travel, the President has authorized a new cap of 25 staff members to go with him.”

Ngelale pointed out that there are currently just ten employees from the First Lady’s and the Vice President’s wives’ offices who are allowed to travel throughout the nation on business.

Only fifteen employees will be allowed to travel throughout the nation on official business with the vice president.

According to the presidential spokesman, chiefs of agencies are now only permitted to travel with two people, while ministers are only permitted to bring four people on international missions.

Ngelale continued, “This regulation will restrict the number of staff personnel that any minister may bring to any event, wherever in the world, to no more than four. CEOs of agencies will only be allowed to travel with two employees wherever in the world.

Four weeks prior, the Tinubu administration faced severe criticism for sending a sizable entourage to the COP28 Climate Change Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This development occurred on Tuesday.

Specifics soon…