The governor, who said most of the trips embarked on by the president were unnecessary, added that ministers or at best, the vice president could have been made to attend most of the functions being attended abroad by the president.
According to a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said that “the president should rather listen more to those of us who criticise him instead of those hailing every of his wrong steps either because of what they intend to gain or for fear of persecution.”
The statement read; “Conservatively, about $1 million goes into every of the foreign trips and the way the president is going, foreign trips alone might gulp 20 per cent of the Federal Government’s budget and that will be disastrous for the dwindling resources of the country.
“It is even more worrisome that while the economy is already in shambles and insecurity pervades the land with Boko Haram burning Nigerians, including children alive in the North East, our president is busy globe trotting.
“From available records, in June 2015 alone, the President travelled to Niger Republic, Chad, Germany and South Africa. Also in 2015, the president travelled to United States of America in July, Benin Republic in August, Ghana and France, in September, India in October, Iran, France and United States of America in November and in December, he travelled to South Africa and Benin Republic.
“This year alone, President Buhari, has travelled to the United Arab Emirate, Kenya, Ethiopia and he is leaving for France and United Kingdom today to spend four days abroad.
“In most of these trips, about $500,000 is spent on estacode, transportation, accommodation, honorarium, media coverage, contingency and other expenses on accompanying presidency officials.
Tribune
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