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Tag: foreign trips

  • Public-funded foreign trips on hold for three months

    Public-funded foreign trips on hold for three months

    • Don’t distract ministers with oversight invitations, President cautions lawmakers

    In response to the economic challenges facing the country and the need for responsible fiscal management, the Federal Government has suspended public-funded foreign trips for three months.

    This will be with effect from April 1.

    Ministers, heads of departments and agencies, as well as other top Federal Government officials are affected.

    A circular on this development from the Office of Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, has been conveyed through the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

    The circular was posted by a presidential aide on X, formerly Twitter.

    It says any official going on an important foreign assignment must obtain presidential approval two weeks before the trip.

    The circular was also sent to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

    It reads: “Mr. President has concerns about the rising cost of travel expenses borne by ministries, departments and agencies of government as well as the growing need for cabinet members and heads of MDAs to focus on their respective mandates for effective service delivery.

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    “Considering the current economic challenges and the need for responsible fiscal management, I am writing to communicate Mr. President’s directive to place a temporary ban on all public-funded international trips for all Federal Government officials at all levels, for an initial period of three months from April 1, 2024.

    “This temporary measure is aimed at cost reduction in governance and intended as a cost-saving measure without compromising government functions.

    “All government officials who intend to go on any public-funded international trip must seek and obtain presidential approval at least two (2) weeks prior to embarking on any such trip, which must be deemed absolutely necessary.”

    In January, the President ordered the reduction of the number of persons on his entourage and other government officials on local and foreign trips.

    First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima and his wife Nana, were also affected by that policy.

    Only 25 aides were expected to accompany the President on local trips and 20 outside the country.

    The number of persons okayed for the First Lady and Vice-President is five each.

    For local trips, the First Lady is entitled to 10 while the Vice-President is 15.

    The wife of the Vice-President was granted 10 aides for her local trips.

    A minister is not expected to embark on a foreign trip with more than four persons.

    The number of persons to accompany every head of the federal agency on a trip is pegged at two.

    Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who announced the measure, explained that it was part of the cost-cutting plan of the government.

    Don’t distract officials with frequent invitations

    Yesterday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu urged Federal lawmakers not to distract ministers and heads of agencies with frequent oversight invitations.

    Speaking at a special Ramadan Iftar, he urged the lawmakers to be considerate.

    He said his appointees had delicate responsibilities that required full focus.

    The President said: “I have been watching various committees summoning ministers, heads of agencies, etc.

    “I have complained to the Speaker to let the poor breath. Let this people do the job.

    “We are not saying that you are not influential. We are not saying you cannot do your oversight.

    ‘’But consider the primary duty of each agency, its personnel or the responsibilities of the Governor of the Central Bank or the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to you and the entire nation.

    ‘’If they are distracted or disturbed, maybe we will shift parliamentary sitting all through the night.

    “We must find a way to accommodate one another. This is an appeal to you.

    “See if you can accept representatives in some instances or even documentation. But do not exercise too much of your powerful position.’’

    The President appreciated the cooperation and support his administration has received from the National Assembly.

    He added: “‘I cannot thank you enough for what you are doing but it is for our country.

    “There’s nothing personal about this. It is for Nigeria and we have no other country but Nigeria.”

    “Please do not forget your constituencies and remember what they are going through.”

    Speaker Tanudeen Abbas said the House of Representatives would continue to support the administration.

    “The House has been very supportive of the President and his policies and we shall continue to ensure that we work together,’’ he said.

  • ‘Nigerian loses over $18b annually to foreign trips’

    ‘Nigerian loses over $18b annually to foreign trips’

    Prince Adetunji Oluwafemi Fadina is President/Managing Director, Jethro Tours International, a firm that signed a contract to promote domestic tourism across major cities of the federation. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, he speaks on the untapped tourism potential of the country. Excerpts:

    State of culture and tourism in Nigeria

    To be candid, I think the problem with us is that we are looking at culture from a different perspective, we are looking at weaknesses instead of strength, we are not seeing things through. But we have a very rich culture and tradition and if you go to India, you will want to learn about their culture and tradition, if you go to Pakistan or you go to Dubai, you will want to learn about the old and the new, if you go to Egypt you will want to learn about the pyramids.

    In Nigeria, instead of us showing how rich our culture is, we will want to be looking more of a foreign person than more of a Nigerian. We should be proud of who we are and I think until we go back home and look at the rich culture we have and turn that product into a revenue-generating stream we won’t get anywhere. The reason why people go to Israel is because of the culture of Jesus who is a Jew.

    The first time I traveled to Israel I found out that most of the Jews didn’t know Jesus, they know more of Moses. And honestly speaking if we know what we have, we don’t need to go out because we have a lot of rich culture and I think the Minister of Tourism shouldn’t be looking at Culture to be the pivot instead of Tourism because I have never seen anywhere in the world where you are pushing Culture ahead of Tourism.

    Tourism is the real umbrella, it is the father of all, where you have a tourism economy, the economy thrives. Culture and tourism have a mutually beneficial relationship which can strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of places, regions and countries. Culture is an increasingly important element of the tourism product as it creates distinctiveness in a crowded global marketplace. At the same time, tourism provides an important means of enhancing culture and creating income which can support and strengthen cultural heritage, cultural production and creativity.

    Culture and tourism are linked because of their obvious synergies and their growth potential. Cultural tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing global tourism markets and the cultural and creative industries are increasingly being used to promote destinations. The increasing use of culture and creativity to market destinations is also adding to the pressure of differentiating regional identities and images, and a growing range of cultural elements are being employed to brand and market regions. Partnership is essential. The complexity of both the tourism and cultural sectors implies that platforms must be created to support collaboration, and mechanisms must be found to ensure that these two sectors can communicate effectively. Local communities are beginning to come together to develop cultural products for tourism rather than competing directly with one another. New policies are likely to feature new structures and projects involving public-private partnership and bringing together a wider range of stakeholders to use culture not only to make destinations attractive for visitors, but also to promote regions as destinations to live,work and invest in.

    The most important aspect in linking tourism and culture is to develop an effective partnership between stakeholders in the two sectors. In many cases the problem is that there are different approaches: the profit motive vs. non-profit, markets vs. public, etc. The role of any platform trying to bring these two sectors together must be to identify their common interests and to act as a mediator between them. It is clear that there is a common interest in the attraction of people to the regions in which they are based, but very often differences approach get in the way.

    In the tourism sector it is normal to speak about visitors, conceived of as customers or clients, whereas the cultural sector is more concerned with residents, usually seen as audiences or citizens. These differences can be overcome when it is made clear that tourists are also part of the cultural audience. As well as partnership between tourism and culture, it is also important to build other forms of partnership, for example with other regions, between the public and private sectors and between a region and its citizens. Links between regions can extend the cultural opportunities available to tourists and help to support new and innovative product offers.

    Working with the private sector is essential for attracting investment and continuing to improve the quality of both the cultural and tourism offer. Convincing residents of the benefits of tourism development is increasingly crucial as they come to form the core of the cultural and creative tourism experience.

    Tourism as alternative to oil

    I think one of the reasons we are not thriving in tourism sector is because we are not having major players and stakeholders who are at the helm of affairs, we are having people who are been scold to be ministers, and when you are scold, you still don’t understand it because your investment is not there and you have people who have billions and billions of dollars who are stakeholders in this industry and someone who is just been put there maybe because of political affiliation is coming there to be scold, and you see them coming up with different summits, bring us together to come and tell them about what tourism is all about and hijack all our ideas and they will think they are ministers no they are wrong. Tourism is the pivot, we need to go back to that and we need to understand that inside tourism, we have what we call the minds concept which is meeting incentive, conference and exhibition because these are the bedrocks, the foundation of tourism and that is why the culture, the leisure, the domestic tourism like pilgrimage, estate, fashion and Nollywood all comes as a connection together in making what we call the revenue of tourism, that I believe is the alternative revenue for Nigeria.

    Best practice

    For instance, trips abroad cost Nigeria over $18.6billion annually. Now let’s take a look at two major ones, religious tourism. In Ogun state axis of Ota we have Shiloh that comes up every November, that is what we call destination tourism 80% of the people that come to Shiloh are not from Ota, they are from Lagos, Lekki, Ikoyi, Ikorodu and some other places outside the country. So they provide buses, and the question I ask is these buses are they moving towards the community of paying taxes? I’m a Christian, the bible says give what belongs to Caesar to Caesar r and what belongs to God to God. But are they doing the right thing? So if the government can work with theses religious bodies, I know this might offend some people but sincerely speaking we are Christians let’s be honest with ourselves, because the honesty and clarity of the game and the way we play religion is painful and is actually to the detriment of the nation. Religious tourism is what Israel feeds on and they make over $1billion every year. So it’s about time we look at Shiloh and RCCG and Mountain of Fire how many government stands are in these places, none. How do people know the country without its stands in those places, they will not know you, be proud to show yourself as a Nigerian.

  • Why Buhari has to go on foreign trips – Lai Mohammed

    Why Buhari has to go on foreign trips – Lai Mohammed

    As President Muhammadu Buhari attends anti-corruption summit in the United Kingdom Tuesday, Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has defended his foreign trips, saying that, it was in the interest of Nigeria that the President attends to meetings that require his presence outside Nigeria.

    According to the Minister, only President Buhari so far parades the kind of personality that attracts the confidence of world powers.

    Lai Mohammed stated this in Kaduna while appearing on Liberty Radio and Television live programme, tagged Guest of The Week.

    According to Mohammed, President Buhari sending representatives to such meetings as some people have suggested will not be as effective as having the president attending them in person.

    He said it would be unfair to attribute the President’s readiness to honour such invitations to a desire  for pleasure saying at the president’s age such things do not matter to him but is only compelled to oblige out of necessity and due to his passion to serve the country.

    “Many world leaders are saying now that Nigeria has a leader with integrity, they have the confidence to discuss with us even on the issue of the looted funds, so sending a representative cannot achieve that much,” he stated.

    Mohammed explained that each of the President’s trip is necessary saying shortly after assuming office, President Buhari had to travel to neighboring countries to seek their collaboration on the fight against insurgents then later to the G-7 countries saying his reputation as a sincere leader with integrity is what makes the world leaders invite him to such meetings.

    The minister explained that the President’s current trip to the UK to attend the summit on anti corruption is no different saying it would avail him the opportunity to meet with world leaders on the fight against corruption and on the issue of looted funds and how it can be repatriated back to the country.

    Mohammed used the opportunity to explain comments he made on how Nigeria can diversify its economy through tourism saying the tourism industry presents a huge potential that can be tapped.

    The minister denied saying the government is going to create jobs using masquerades saying he only used the example of a particular masquerade in the South East to illustrate how a single festival can attract activities across board.

    Meanwhile, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and other Ministers are to give account of stewardship of President Muhammadu Buhari led administration in the last one year at a town hall meeting in Kaduna Tuesday.

     

  • President Buhari’s foreign trips

    President Buhari’s foreign trips

    •After all that globe-trotting, it’s time to settle down to work at home

    Since taking office six months ago, President Muhammadu Buhari has embarked on 10 foreign trips. This itinerary translates into roughly two foreign trips per month. Contemplating the enormous challenges facing the Administration at home, not the least of which is to make its campaign promise of Change real in the lives of  Nigerians, many commentators who cannot be called frivolous have criticised the President’s travel schedule and urged him to stay home and attend to pressing domestic problems.

    Their concern is understandable.

    December is already with us, but Boko Haram’s campaign of murder and mayhem shows no sign of abating. Power supply is as epileptic as ever. Free lunch for primary school pupils and monthly stipends for the unemployed are scheduled to start next year, but there are few signs that the preparatory work for these innovative projects is underway.

    Unemployment continues to pose a clear and present danger to the body politic. And there is the running scandal of a major oil-producing country importing refined petroleum products in a process riddled with crippling discontinuities and monumental corruption.

    In our system where political officials count more than institutions, the public expects to see the President personally grappling, hands-on, with pressing issues. It does not help that, several weeks after the President named his cabinet, he is yet to convene a meeting of the Federal Executive Council. He is yet to set priorities and lay out a framework for action.

    It would be easy in this context to dismiss the President’s foreign trips as a distraction from the urgent business of setting the country on the path to growth and development.

    But it would be wrong to do so. The President’s plane is virtually an extension of his office at  Aso Rock Villa, thanks to information technology. He can confer with his ministers, issue instructions, exercise leadership and generally monitor the state of affairs from anywhere in the world. So, his physical absence from the scene does not mean disengagement. If, that is, he works the modern way and uses high-tech in the fashion of a global village.

    Besides, as a newly elected President, Buhari had to establish rapport quickly with other leaders on the global, regional and sub-regional level. Modern diplomacy rests more on such meetings than on formal treaties. A country in dire need of partners to help end Boko Haram’s murderous menace, trace and recover the billions stolen by officials and deposited in secret accounts in foreign banks and bring in investors can have no better spokesperson than its President in face-to-face meetings with other presidents.

    Buhari’s foreign trips to the United States, the UN General Assembly, South Africa, Niger, Tchad, Cameroun, France, India, Iran, and Malta – for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – fall into this pattern. None of them can be dismissed as superfluous.

    And as the President’s Senior Special Assistant, Garba Shehu, has stated, the trips have been undertaken with the maximum of economy, unlike in the recent past.

    But now that the President has fairly established himself on the foreign scene, he should cut down on his travels, if only to stem the growing perception that he is distracted. He should attend only those meetings that absolutely require his presence. For other meetings and conferences, he should delegate the Vice President and senior ministers to represent Nigeria.

     

  • Buhari’s foreign trips not frivolous — Minister

    Buhari’s foreign trips not frivolous — Minister

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s foreign trips since assuming office are critical to the implementation of his administration key policies of enhancing security, jump-starting the economy, creating jobs and fighting corruption, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said yesterday.

    All the trips have been anything but frivolous  and they have started yielding fruits in terms of turning the tide in the fight against Boko Haram, Mohammed said in a statement in Abuja.

    ‘’Nigerians, whether in the ruling or the opposition parties, have a right to ask questions about the activities of their President, but it is absolutely important that they do so from an informed, rather than partisan or sensational, standpoint,’’ he said.

    The Minister explained that most of the President’s trips – to Nigeria’s neighbouring countries of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well as to Germany, the US, France and the UN – were devoted to rallying regional and global support for the war against terrorism.

    He added:’’He was in Germany at the invitation of the G7 to solicit support from the industrialized nations for the war against terrorism. No one who has witnessed the killings and maiming in the past seven years by Boko Haram will call such trips frivolous. After all, the security and welfare of the citizens are the reason for the existence of any government.

    ‘’The President’s visit to South Africa was to attend the regular summit of the African Union; the trip to Ghana was aimed at fostering

    better relations with a brotherly country; the trip to India was for the India-Africa summit that provided the opportunity to explore ways of enhancing Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from Indian investors, while the trip to Iran was to attend the forum of gas exporting countries, a veritable platform for discussing how to better harness Nigeria’s abundant gas resources for industrial/domestic consumption and export, at a time of dwindling oil prices.

    ‘’The President also travelled to Malta to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, from where he travelled to Paris for the UN Conference on Climate Change. The President’s second trip to South Africa since assuming office is for the China-Africa forum. On the few occasions that the President has embarked on a state visit, he has tied that to an agenda that will further the quest for support for the war against terror and the efforts to enhance FDIs, thus stimulating economic growth and creating jobs.’’

  • New directive on foreign trips

    Henceforth, workers travelling out of the country  must inform the management at least two weeks before such journey, the management has warned.

    In a statement, it implored staff to comply with the new directive.