- Bureaucrats Say Obasanjo’s Circular Scrapped Official Cars for Ministers, Limit Security Aides to 2
- In Egypt, a Minister is entitled to a Car and just one Security Guard, says Bureaucrat
By Abiola Olawale
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday, directed the reduction of official convoy vehicles assigned to Ministers, Ministers of State, and Heads of Agencies of the Federal Government to a maximum of three.
This directive was contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the statement, Onanuga also revealed that no additional vehicles will be assigned to the said government officials for movement.
The senior presidential aide explained that the development was taken as part of the cost-cutting measure of Tinubu’s administration.
This is as some bureaucrats who spoke with The New Diplomat said the Federal government already has a subsisting policy which scrapped official vehicles for ministers, top government functionaries and limited the number of security guards for a minister to two: one DSS and one policeman.
According to civil servants this was contained in a widely circulated memo by the Federal government signed by the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ufot Ekeate. To them, that memo or circular is still subsisting since there was no other overriding FEC decision on it and that what “the government needs to do is to simply bring it up again and ask the SGF to draw top government officials attention to it.”
A retired top bureaucrat also maintained that in some African countries including Egypt, a minister is only eligible for one security guard and just a car.
Meanwhile, Tinubu also ordered all ministers, ministers of state, and heads of agencies to have at most five security personnel attached to them.
The security team is expected to comprise four police officers and one Department of State Services (DSS) officer.
No additional security personnel will be assigned, he ordered. It would be recalled that in January, Tinubu announced the reduction of his entourage on foreign trips from 50 to 20 officials. For local trips, he reduced it to 25 officials.
He similarly reduced the vice president’s entourage to five officials on foreign trips and 15 for local trips.
This is also coming 24 hours after Tinubu implemented an overhaul of his cabinet, making changes to the composition and leadership of various ministries.
The President disengaged five ministers, reassigned some and changed the designations of ten other ministers.
The appointments were announced in a statement issued by the presidency after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.
