Bola Ahmed Tinubu, participating in the Climate Change Conference (COP28) arrived in Dubai with 1,411 delegates, according to a list by the UN Climate Change, making him the leader in Africa with the highest entourage and the third largest representation among global countries attending the conference.
Currently, Nigeria is battling with record inflation, an out-of-control exchange rate, a ballooning debt profile, and millions of its citizens sliding into poverty. The total to-and-from flight ticket for the delegates is estimated at N885 million. His government continues to show that it cannot curb wasteful spending.
BusinessDay arrived at the cost using flight rates from international airline operators. According to sources in the aviation sector who would not want to be mentioned, the federal government rarely charter local carriers when attending conferences outside the country.
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The government prefers to contract international flight operators and pay them in foreign currency for charter services, this is despite having local operators with approvals to fly directly to some of the countries. The President is known to use one of the 10 Presidential fleets while the rest of the entourage charter an international flight. The cost of maintaining each of the Presidential aircraft rose by 99.6 percent to N7.297 billion in 2019.
Experts say it is unfortunate that the government does not recognise the importance of cutting down the high cost of governance, even when it has to borrow almost 100 percent to fund its budget. Nigeria is planning to spend N27.5 trillion in 2024, out of which the non-debt recurrent expenditure is N9.92 trillion while debt service is projected to be N8.25 trillion and capital expenditure is N8.7 trillion.
Source: Business Day.
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Indeed, George Bernard Shaw, was right. Without a willingness to alter our bad behaviors, release outdated notions, and shift traditional thinking, effecting positive change becomes impossible.