{"id":2534,"date":"2024-02-19T08:05:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T08:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/william-ruto-and-bola-tinubu-africas-flying-presidents-under-fire\/"},"modified":"2024-02-19T08:05:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T08:05:14","slug":"william-ruto-and-bola-tinubu-africas-flying-presidents-under-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/william-ruto-and-bola-tinubu-africas-flying-presidents-under-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"William Ruto and Bola Tinubu: Africa\u2019s \u2018flying presidents\u2019 under fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 19 \u2013 Since Kenya\u2019s William Ruto and Nigeria\u2019s Bola Tinubu became presidents, they have faced similar criticism over their frequent trips abroad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two men have been the subject of unflattering descriptions \u2013 the costs associated with their alleged penchant for air travel often contrasted with tough economic conditions at home.<\/p>\n

A Kenyan newspaper, the Standard, nicknamed Mr Ruto the \u201cFlying President\u201d. It said \u201cso great is his love for flying that it appears that he cannot pass up any opportunity\u201d despite pressing domestic demands, such as dealing with the high cost of living.<\/p>\n

Last month, as Mr Tinubu made yet another trip to Europe, Nigeria\u2019s opposition leader Atiku Abubakar said on social media that Nigeria does not need a \u201ctourist-in-chief\u201d. He criticised the president\u2019s private visit \u201cwhile Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity\u201d.<\/p>\n

This in some ways can be seen as a cheap shot, easily levelled by any critic. Presidents need to attend heads-of-state meetings and nurture foreign relations. This is important not only for diplomatic reasons, but also economic ones, as lucrative investment deals can be negotiated.<\/p>\n

But some have pointed out that late Tanzanian President John Magufuli never travelled outside Africa in his six years in office.<\/p>\n

\u2018Personal glorification\u2019<\/h2>\n

Kenyan foreign policy analyst Prof Macharia Munene acknowledges that some trips are necessary but says others are undoubtedly \u201cwasteful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have presidents who love to be in the air\u2026 Some of these trips are personal glorifications, not so much for the country,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Mr Ruto and Mr Tinubu and their spokespeople defend their trips as being vital to help address the very problems they are accused of ignoring.<\/p>\n

In the eight months since his inauguration, Mr Tinubu has made 14 trips \u2013 an average of just under two a month \u2013 but this is dwarfed by Mr Ruto, who has made about 50 journeys abroad since he became president in 2022 \u2013 averaging more than three a month.<\/p>\n

In comparison, Mr Ruto\u2019s predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, averaged just over one foreign trip a month in his decade in charge, similar to the record of Nigeria\u2019s previous president, Muhammadu Buhari, although in terms of total days spent abroad, the difference is not that much.<\/p>\n

Other world leaders have also notched up the air miles, but Mr Ruto and Mr Tinubu face continued questions over whether every trip is necessary.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian and Kenyan leaders were both in Europe at the end of last month \u2013 Mr Ruto in Italy attending the Italy-Africa summit while Mr Tinubu was continuing his unexplained \u201cprivate visit\u201d to France, the third time he has been in the country since last May. Since then, Mr Ruto has been on other trips.<\/p>\n

In June 2023, just three weeks after assuming office, Mr Tinubu travelled to Paris for a two-day climate summit. He had already been there months earlier \u201cto rest\u201d and plan the transition shortly after being elected president.<\/p>\n

From Paris he went on to the UK for private talks with his predecessor, who had also travelled to \u201crest\u201d after the elections. A week later, Mr Tinubu went to Guinea-Bissau for a meeting of West African bloc Ecowas, followed by a trip to Nairobi.<\/p>\n

In August he visited Benin, and in September India, the United Arab Emirates and the US for the UN General Assembly before returning to Paris.<\/p>\n

He was home for the whole of October before resuming travels with a trip to Saudi Arabia, then Guinea-Bissau and Germany at the end of November and a week later travelled to Dubai.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian presidency has said the trips are important for attracting foreign investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn every foreign trip I have embarked on, my message to investors and other business people has been the same. Nigeria is ready and open for business,\u201d President Tinubu said in his 2024 New Year message.<\/p>\n

Mr Ruto\u2019s travel schedule since his inauguration in 2022 has been even more hectic.<\/p>\n

Between September of that year and last December he had travelled abroad at least twice every month. In May 2023 he made five trips. He has travelled to various African countries, Europe and the US for global events and bilateral meetings.<\/p>\n

This year, in January, he has been in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Italy. And already this month, Mr Ruto has been to Japan and the UAE.<\/p>\n

There is not just the question of frequency, but also the question of cost.<\/p>\n

Mr Tinubu is said to have spent at least 3.4bn naira ($2.2m; \u00a31.8m) on domestic and foreign travel in the first six months of his presidency \u2013 36% more than the budgeted amount for 2023, the Nigerian newspaper Punch reported, citing GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks government spending.<\/p>\n

In Kenya, the Controller of Budget, an independent office that oversees government spending, showed a significant increase in the office of the president\u2019s travel expenditure in the year to July last year \u2013 which included nine months of Mr Ruto\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

Overall spending for both domestic and foreign travel for the year was over 1.3bn Kenyan shillings ($9.2m; \u00a37.3m), exceeding the travel budget for the previous year by more than 30%.<\/p>\n

The Kenyan government spokesman did not respond to the BBC\u2019s questions about Mr Ruto\u2019s trips, though the president and the spokesman have often justified them.<\/p>\n

Mr Ruto himself has said he does not \u201ctravel like a tourist\u201d and the trips are necessary to get foreign investment and create employment for Kenyans abroad \u2013 he recently said he had secured more than 300,000 job opportunities through negotiations.<\/p>\n

After the recent trip to Japan, Mr Ruto said he had secured deals worth more than $2.3bn.<\/p>\n

While stressing the benefits of the presidential trips, both Nigeria and Kenya have also taken some action to counter the criticism of government employees travelling abroad.<\/p>\n

Kenya said it had cut its civil service travel budget by 50% in the wake of accusations of \u201cwastage\u201d on domestic and foreign trips. But this does not seem to have affected the president himself, who has said he will not shun trips as long as they are beneficial.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Nigerian president announced a reduction in the official travel delegation by about 60%. The directive announced by his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale included cutting down the president\u2019s own travel entourage, but did not say whether he would cut the number of his trips.<\/p>\n

Yet is not just Kenya and Nigeria where the cost of travel has been a concern.<\/p>\n

As Congolese citizens prepared to go the polls last year, one of the criticisms of President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi was the number of trips he had made, with allegations that there was little to show for it.<\/p>\n

Last November, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera suspended all international travel for himself and his ministers, and ordered all those abroad to return due to the economic problems the country was facing.<\/p>\n

Some other countries that have also had to address travel spending by government officials since last year include Uganda, The Gambia, Namibia and Sierra Leone, with the leaders of the latter two labelled by local newspapers the \u201cflying president\u201d \u2013 just like Kenya\u2019s Mr Ruto.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 19 \u2013 Since Kenya\u2019s William Ruto and Nigeria\u2019s Bola Tinubu became presidents, they have faced similar criticism over their frequent trips abroad. The two men have been the subject of unflattering descriptions \u2013 the costs associated with their alleged penchant for air travel often contrasted with tough economic conditions at home. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}