NTJF Condemns Turkey Trip By Adamawa LG Chairmen’s Wives, Describes It As Waste of Scarce Public Resources

Naija Times Journalism Foundation (NTJF) has unequivocally condemned the reported wasteful spending of scarce public resources by Local Governments Chairmen in Adamawa State on a needless trip by their wives to Turkey for a so-called leadership training.

In a statement Monday, the Foundation stated that the last time “we checked, the spouses of LGA Chairmen are not public officials, and even the idea of leadership training in a foreign land amount to a bogus contraption meant to siphon public funds.

“In the light of this outrageous activity, the question needing answer is: what leadership training do these LGA Chairmen’s wives need that cannot be received from Nigerian institutions and at no cost to taxpayers

“Must public finances pay for these needless expenses at a time key sectors like education, healthcare, infrastructure and social welfare remain neglected and in need of serious attention

“It is insulting to the sensibilities of long- suffering citizens, disheartening and to say the least, provocative for public funds to be used for such frivolities.

“It defies belief and common sense that at a time Nigerians are clamouring for the prudent and judicious use of scarce public resources, public officials at the local level are busy frittering away funds on activities, which add no value to the lived realities of citizens.

“This Foundation is fully aware that Adamawa State remains one of the poorest in Nigeria. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Adamawa State is Nigeria’s fifth poorest state with a poverty rate of 75.41%.

“The state has also borne the brunt of the Boko Haram insurgency and needs key investments to ensure the recovery of critical sectors.

“Therefore, these peculiarities in terms of extreme poverty, humanitarian crisis and the need for investment in important sectors to stabilise the state, are core areas of governance, which should engage the attention of all responsible political and governance actors.

“To abandon all of these essential areas and focus on needless travels to foreign lands in the name of learning about leadership at the expense of taxpayers, is to say the least, quite irresponsible.

“This Foundation has also observed, based on data from all credible sources that although the travel of the Local Government Chairmen’s wives was paid for from public funds, there were no budget lines prepared for such expenditure.

“This amounts to engaging in unbridled corruption, fiscal indiscipline and impunity. We are therefore of the considered position that the relevant anti-corruption agencies, specifically the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), should immediately cause an investigation of this gross abuse of office and the serious violation of extant public finance laws.

“While it could be argued that this particular infraction should be handled at the level of Adamawa State, the scale of the corruption involved is symptomatic of the behaviour of Nigeria’s political class.”