Group lauds Tinubu for banning government officials from foreign trips

The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has lauded President Bola Tinubu for banning senior government officials from foreign trips, saying it will help to check frivolous use of public funds.

Mr Jesutega Onokpasa, the Chairman, TMSG, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

“A laudable template has been laid by Tinubu for State Governors, who have the interest of the country at heart.

“Tinubu’s decision to stop frivolous foreign trips at tax-payers expense is a welcome development that should have salutary effects on our foreign exchange reserve.

“Hitherto, the economy was managed in a manner suggesting that Nigeria had an inexhaustible foreign exchange reserves, leading to a near collapse of the naira.

“Almost every department of government was in a race to outspend one another as officials embark on frivolous foreign trips with costly estacodes for those on such trips,” Onokpasa said.

He said that agreements and discussions that should have been handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the country’s embassies abroad became duplicated at all levels.

He added that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment was also treated as if it does not exist, as officials scrambled for scarce foreign exchange to spend abroad.

He said with the latest move, it was clearly a different story with the firm resolve of Tinubu to bring down the cost of governance.

This, he said, was in addition to his recent resolve to implement the Oronsaye report by merging government agencies with overlapping functions.

“Nigeria is set to save a lot of funds from the gross wastage of the past. This is commendable,” Onokpasa said.

He urged state governors to take a cue from the president and put a similar structure in place.

“If the 36 state governors could borrow a leaf from Tinubu’s initiative, it would go a long way to stem the tide of leakages in our finances as well as steady the decline in our foreign reserves.

“Apart from the beneficial effect to our foreign exchange reserves, it will show Nigeria as a serious country in the comity of nations.

“We must build a country where the giant of Africa is no longer ready to accept that ‘anything goes”. Fiscal discipline is critical for national discipline.

“Since the current democratic experience began in 1999, the fear of the cost of governance has been a major source of worry for many.

“But today, the monster is being tamed by an administration that is ready to prove that without external intervention, Nigeria has what it takes to move forward,” he said.