Presidency Spent N37.6bn on Travel in Three Years
By Victor Idajili
The Presidency spent N37.64 billion on domestic and foreign travel between June 2023 and April 2026, according to government expenditure records tracked by accountability platform GovSpend.
The amount covers presidential trips, logistics, foreign exchange allocations and other travel-related costs in the first three years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
President Tinubu left Abuja on Sunday for a three-week annual vacation in Europe, starting with London. The trip comes shortly after Vice President Kashim Shettima returned from a two-week vacation. Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said the President is expected back to “join the hectic campaign for the January 2027 elections.” The full itinerary was not disclosed.
GovSpend records show spending peaked in 2024 at N25.27bn, driven by forex allocations and funding for the Presidential Air Fleet. The breakdown for the period is N9.19bn in the second half of 2023, N25.27bn in 2024, N2.71bn in 2025, and N477.45m between January and April 2026, totaling N37,639,227,853.51.
In 2023, payments began soon after Tinubu assumed office, including over N150m in June for “presidential trips and other related expenses,” and several forex allocations to the Air Fleet in July and August. In September, four N197.69m transactions were processed, each linked to $1m for presidential trips.
Since May 29, 2023, Tinubu has made 51 foreign trips to at least 30 countries, spending about 261 days abroad. The latest vacation is his 52nd trip. France has been the most visited country, followed by the UK and UAE. His engagements have ranged from the UN General Assembly, G20, COP28, and AU summits, to state visits in Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and bilateral meetings in the US, Germany, Ghana, South Africa and others. In 2026 alone, he spent 22 days abroad in January, visited Türkiye where nine agreements were signed, went to the UK in March for a £746m port deal, and in May travelled to France, Kenya and Rwanda for continental summits.
Forex records also show $553,884 was released for overseas trips involving First Lady Oluremi Tinubu between 2023 and 2024, covering the US, Mozambique, Ethiopia, UK and France. At the rates applied, that was N700.71m. The largest allocation was $152,831 for a France trip in April 2024. No such payments were recorded for 2025 and 2026. The records show destinations and amounts but not the purpose, duration or total cost beyond forex.
The President and Convener of the Transparency and Accountability Group, Comrade Ayo Ologun, questioned the legal basis for funding the First Lady’s foreign travels, noting the office is not established by law or provided for in the budget. “If it is established that public money was spent on supposed official travels, the question should be: what is the duty?” he said, calling for an investigation.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also criticized the timing of the President’s trip amid economic hardship and insecurity. “Nigeria is burning, and the President has chosen a boarding pass over the fire extinguisher,” he said, adding that “millions of Nigerians are being grounded by hardship while their President is airborne.”
Responding, Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, said the leave was necessary ahead of the 2027 campaigns. “The President is proceeding on a well-deserved leave. With four, five months of serious campaigning ahead, it’s important that the President also refuels. Even though he’s going on leave, we know that he’ll be engaged with state matters on a daily basis.”
