A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Tuesday, dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s cost-cutting measures, describing them as superficial and mere widow dressing.
Frank, in a statement in Abuja, described the austerity measures aimed at reducing cost of governance as ‘fake and deceitful’.
He noted that while countries like Rwanda and Tanzania have genuinely reduced excessive government spending, the reverse was the case in Nigeria where the president is giving austerity directives on one hand and allegedly engaging on lavish spending on the other hand.
Frank recalled that Tinubu had in January 2024 ordered a 60 per cent 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.
However, he lamented that the President and Vice President have not only increased the number of their foreign trips, but large entourage continued to accompany them, including the First Lady and Ministers.
Frank, who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and Middle East, said: “President Tinubu’s recent cost-cutting measures, including limiting ministers to three official vehicles and reducing their security personnel, is 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 equally encouraged the National Assembly to approve the establishments 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, approval of 300 per cent increase in salary of judicial officers, building of official quarters for judges being planned by the FCT and the acquisition of a N5billion presidential Yacht.”
Frank equally raised the alarm that by building houses for judicial officers, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, was out to corruptly compromise the judiciary to decide both ongoing and future cases, including electoral disputes, in favour of himself, President Tinubu and all members of the present administration.
“This, among others, reveal a stark disconnect between rhetoric and action especially his removal of fuel subsidies, which have contributed to high inflation and resulted in crushing economic pain for average Nigerians, yet he keeps telling Nigerians to bear his inflicted economic hardships and wait for a better tomorrow.”
He called on the President to abide by his policy of traveling with only 20 persons on foreign trips, as well as the limit of five persons for the Vice President and the First Lady if he was serious about cutting cost of governance in the country.
He also told the President that reducing the fleet of cars in a Minister’s convoy and security detail accompanying any convoy have no significant impact in reducing the cost of governance.
He called on the President and all officials in the three arms of government – executive, legislative and judiciary – to urgently reduce their salaries and allowances by 50 per cent if the administration is serious about reducing cost of governance.
He called on Nigerians to brace up for more painful measures from the President, while urging them to mobilise and vote in a new government in 2027.
