A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s cost-cutting measures, describing them as deceitful.
Frank, in a statement issued Tuesday, described the austerity measures purportedly aimed at reducing the cost of governance as fake and deceitful.
He recalled that Tinubu had, in January 2024, ordered a 60 percent slash in his entourage and that of his wife, the Vice President, and his wife while on a foreign trip.
He said that while the President limited his delegation on such trips to 20, the Vice President, First Lady, and wife of the VP were to go with five staff only.
He noted that while countries like Rwanda and Tanzania have genuinely reduced excessive government spending, the reverse is the case in Nigeria, where the President gives austerity directives on one hand and engages in lavish spending on the other hand.
Frank lamented that the President and Vice President have not only increased the number of their foreign trips, but large entourages continue to accompany them. The same applies to the First Lady and Ministers.
He noted: “President Tinubu’s recent cost-cutting measures, including limiting ministers to three official vehicles and reducing their security personnel, are more superficial than substantive reforms.
“While these directives may suggest a commitment to fiscal responsibility, they fail to address the underlying issues of Nigeria’s bloated bureaucracy and excessive governance costs.
“Notwithstanding that his plan to merge agencies in line with the Steve Oronsaye Report has been jettisoned, he has also encouraged the National Assembly to approve the establishment of zonal development commissions, out of which he has assented to the North West and South East zonal intervention agencies’ bills.
“Besides, the President keeps creating ministries with multiple agencies—the latest being that of Livestock and Regional Development.
“The President is well aware that restricting ministers’ vehicles and security details does not tackle the systemic corruption that inflates government expenditures.
“Furthermore, his administration continues to prioritize lavish spending over meaningful reforms, like the purchase of a new presidential jet, the approval of a 300 percent increase in the salaries of judicial officers, the building of official quarters for judges being planned by the FCT, and the acquisition of a N5 billion presidential yacht.”