President Bola Tinubu has directed a massive cut in the number of officials on the entourage of government functionaries travelling within or outside the country.

For trips within the country, the president shall have an entourage of at most 25 officials. On foreign trips, the number of accompanying officials shall not exceed 20 persons.

Also, the vice president will not have more than five officials accompanying him on foreign trips. On trips within the country, the vice president shall have an entourage of not more than 15 officials.

The first lady and the vice president’s wife shall also not have more than five officials in their entourage when travelling outside the country.

The two wives shall have a maximum of 10 accompanying officials each when they travel within the country.

Ministers shall have only four accompanying officials when travelling, while heads of agencies shall have two.

The president’s media aide, Ajuri Ngelale, told reporters on Tuesday in Abuja that the decision was to reduce massive bills accruing from official trips of principal officers of government.

He added that security outfits within states should be the security masterminds for visiting officials.

“The reduction in the size of entourages will bring total sanity and prudence to the management of the commonwealth of our people.

“The president is insistent that the notion of government wastage, excessive recurrent expenditure is over,’’ he said.

Mr Ngelale added that officials would no longer be allowed to conduct government affairs in a way different from what the latter was asking Nigerians to do through prudence and cost management. 

(NAN)