The Transparency and Accountability Group has called for an investigation into public funds spent on First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s foreign trips, after records showed ₦700.7 million was released for five overseas visits between 2023 and 2024.
The group’s president, Comrade Ayo Ologun, made the call while speaking with Daily Trust, questioning the legal basis for the spending. He argued that the Office of the First Lady has no legal recognition and is not captured anywhere in the national budget.
GovSpend records show that $553,884 — equivalent to ₦700,707,534.55 at the exchange rates applicable when the funds were disbursed — was released for trips covering the United States, Mozambique, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom and France. The records list destinations, travel dates and forex amounts, but do not disclose the purpose of the trips, their duration, entourage sizes, or total costs beyond the currency component.
The first transaction was tied to a U.S. trip dated March 11, 2023. State House Operations purchased $94,314 for the visit, though payment was made months later on November 17, 2023, at a value of ₦77,659,888.63.
Four more transactions followed in 2024, totalling $459,570. The largest, $152,831, was for an April trip to France, paid for in February at ₦149,794,284.71. A March trip to Mozambique cost $126,834 (₦202,386,198.09), while a September visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was billed at $96,118 (₦144,571,785.46). A London trip in March accounted for $83,787 (₦126,295,377.66).
No similar forex allocations for the First Lady’s foreign trips appear in the GovSpend records for 2025 or 2026.
Ologun said the absence of legal backing for the office raises questions about accountability. “Because her office is not recognized by the law… if it is established that public money was spent on supposed official travels, the question should be: what is the duty?” he said, adding that authorities are obligated to guard against the “depletion of our national commonwealth.”
He further questioned the source of the funds. “Where did that amount of money come from? If it is spent on the wife of the President, that is abuse of power,” Ologun said, calling for both the expenditure and its legal basis to be probed — and for accountable parties to face consequences “by the provisions of the law.”
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