The announcement by the Presidency spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, about the 60 per cent cut in all travel expenses for President Bola Tinubu, the vice president, Kashim Shettima, First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and the wife of the vice president was received by Nigerians with a sense of relief. For so long in the Nigerian democratic journey, the huge cost of governance has continually been an issue of public concern.

In a country struggling with many developmental challenges, the zenith of which is the more than 133 million people living in multi-dimensional poverty, more than 20 million out-of-school children, high level food and physical insecurity, double-digit inflation, unemployment and infrastructural decay and deficiencies, the recurrent expenditure spent on non-productive ventures like domestic and foreign travel expenses for principal officers and their wives at both federal and state levels has been a huge drain on the finances of government at all levels.

Nigerians were therefore relieved with the announcement by the presidency that henceforth, the President’s entourage on foreign trips would not exceed 20, that of the vice president, 15, First Lady, five and the wife of the vice president, five. For domestic travels too, it has been slashed to 25 for the president, 20 for the vice president, 10 each for the First Lady and the wife of the vice president.

The president, by this gesture, has demonstrated that he is ready to lead by example and as such telling Nigerians to adjust to the economic realities can be seen from this very directive. He also pruned the number of people that should travel with ministers and heads of agencies and parastatals.

While we commend this gesture, we fear that it may go the way of other presidential pronouncements that ended up as mere promises. We recall the words by former President Muhammadu Buhari that officers of the government would not travel first class or even travel abroad for medical treatment, except when unavoidably necessary. The former president also promised to sell off some aircraft in the presidential fleet to save cost, but there seems to be no evidence that all the promises were kept as even the former president himself spent months cumulatively abroad receiving medical attention.

These kinds of failed promises no doubt add to the trust deficit of the people on the leadership class at all levels. It is therefore not surprising that most people are taking the travel expenses cut by the president with a pinch of salt and crossed fingers, waiting for the execution. The hope again is that there must be strict monitoring of the implementation of the directive. It would help in rebuilding the trust of the people and encouraging them to truly cut their personal expenses pending when the economy recovers fully.

We however believe that this should be the beginning of the government taking the road less travelled in governance. More often than not, extraneous expenses and wastages by those elected to offices, appointed or other public servants contribute to the huge budget deficits year on year and the resultant effects of increased poverty index in the country.

We would equally suggest that the president, being the leader of his All Progressives Congress (APC) and with their control of majority of the states, can use his influence to redirect the governors in his party to replicate the same ‘belt-tightening’ measures through cutting down of bloated entourages and travel expenses so they can inject the money spent on such trips into developmental projects.

The legislators at both state and federal levels must also borrow a leaf. Nigerian legislators are alleged to be the world’s most highly paid in salaries and allowances. We hope that they would take a cue from the presidency and re-adjust their cravings for luxury lifestyle, expensive allowances and needless foreign travels to supposedly learn about legislative duties, most of which they never put into practice.

However, beyond cutting travel expenses, the cost-cutting net would be more comprehensive if extended to other areas of wastages like duplication of duties by ministries, agencies and parastatals. In an era of technology, certain redundant staff can be deployed to more areas of need where they can be more productive and add value to the economy. Nigeria sure needs a lot of sectorial re-evaluation for better functionality that can help in creating more wealth.

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