In the span of three months, the Federal Government spent approximately N701m to fund the foreign trips of the country’s First Lady, Remi Tinubu, to five countries.
Recall that in 2023, the Federal Government allocated N1.5bn for the procurement of vehicles for the Office of the First Lady.
This budgetary allocation was outlined in the N2.1tn supplementary budget for 2023 approved by the National Assembly.
A breakdown of the budget shows the government planned to spend N2.9bn on sport utility vehicles for the Presidential Villa and another N2.9bn to replace operational vehicles for the Presidency.
Former Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, however, claimed that the N1.5bn budgeted for vehicles was for the Presidency and not for the First Lady’s office.
However, checks by our correspondent, using GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses Federal Government’s spending, showed that the government paid out the sum of N700,707,532 over three months for the First Lady’s foreign trips to five countries, including two African nations.
On November 17, 2023, the government, through the State House headquarters transit account, released the sum of N77,659,888 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($94,314) for the First Lady’s trip to the United States.
On February 24, 2024, the government, through the State House headquarters transit account, paid the sum of N149,794,284 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($152,831) for the First Lady’s trip to France on January 4, 2024.
On March 15, 2024, the sum of N202,386,198 was also paid by the government through the State House account for the purchase of foreign exchange ($126,834) for the First Lady’s trip to Mozambique that month.
On the same day, the government paid N144,571,785 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($96,118) for the First Lady’s trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 9, 2024.
The government, through the same State House account, paid out the sum of N126,295,377 for the purchase of foreign exchange ($83,967) for the First Lady’s trip to London that month.
Additionally, the government spent a total sum of N314,231,472 on six programmes of the First Lady within four months.