William Ruto and Bola Tinubu: Africa’s ‘flying presidents’ under fire

Since Kenya’s William Ruto and Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu grew to become presidents, they’ve confronted comparable criticism over their frequent journeys overseas.

The two males have been the topic of unflattering descriptions – the prices related to their alleged penchant for air journey usually contrasted with powerful financial situations at dwelling.

A Kenyan newspaper, the Standard, nicknamed Mr Ruto the “Flying President”. It mentioned “so great is his love for flying that it appears that he cannot pass up any opportunity” regardless of urgent home calls for, equivalent to coping with the excessive price of residing.

Last month, as Mr Tinubu made one more journey to Europe, Nigeria’s opposition chief Atiku Abubakar mentioned on social media that Nigeria doesn’t want a “tourist-in-chief”. He criticised the president’s personal go to “while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity”.

This in some methods might be seen as an inexpensive shot, simply levelled by any critic. Presidents have to attend heads-of-state conferences and nurture international relations. This is vital not just for diplomatic causes, but additionally financial ones, as profitable funding offers might be negotiated.

But some have identified that late Tanzanian President John Magufuli by no means travelled exterior Africa in his six years in workplace.

Kenyan international coverage analyst Prof Macharia Munene acknowledges that some journeys are obligatory however says others are undoubtedly “wasteful”.

“You have presidents who love to be in the air… Some of these trips are personal glorifications, not so much for the country,” he informed the BBC.

Mr Ruto and Mr Tinubu and their spokespeople defend their journeys as being important to assist handle the very issues they’re accused of ignoring.

In the eight months since his inauguration, Mr Tinubu has made 14 journeys – a median of simply under two a month – however that is dwarfed by Mr Ruto, who has made about 50 journeys overseas since he grew to become president in 2022 – averaging greater than three a month.

In comparability, Mr Ruto’s predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, averaged simply over one international journey a month in his decade in cost, just like the file of Nigeria’s earlier president, Muhammadu Buhari.

Other world leaders have additionally notched up the air miles, however Mr Ruto and Mr Tinubu face continued questions over whether or not each journey is critical.

The Nigerian and Kenyan leaders have been each in Europe on the finish of final month – Mr Ruto in Italy attending the Italy-Africa summit whereas Mr Tinubu was persevering with his unexplained “private visit” to France, the third time he has been within the nation since final May. Since then, Mr Ruto has been on different journeys.

In June 2023, simply three weeks after assuming workplace, Mr Tinubu travelled to Paris for a two-day local weather summit. He had already been there months earlier “to rest” and plan the transition shortly after being elected president.

From Paris he went on to the UK for personal talks together with his predecessor, who had additionally travelled to “rest” after the elections. Every week later, Mr Tinubu went to Guinea-Bissau for a gathering of West African bloc Ecowas, adopted by a visit to Nairobi.

In August he visited Benin, and in September India, the United Arab Emirates and the US for the UN General Assembly earlier than returning to Paris.

He was dwelling for the entire of October earlier than resuming travels with a visit to Saudi Arabia, then Guinea-Bissau and Germany on the finish of November and per week later travelled to Dubai.

The Nigerian presidency has mentioned the journeys are vital for attracting international funding.

“On 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,” President Tinubu mentioned in his 2024 New Year message.

Mr Ruto’s journey schedule since his inauguration in 2022 has been much more hectic.

Between September of that yr and final December he had travelled overseas no less than twice each month. In May 2023 he made 5 journeys. He has travelled to varied African international locations, Europe and the US for international occasions and bilateral conferences.

This yr, 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.

There is not only the query of frequency, but additionally the query of price.

Mr Tinubu is alleged to have spent no less than 3.4bn naira ($2.2m; £1.8m) on home and international journey within the first six months of his presidency – 36% greater than the budgeted quantity for 2023, the Nigerian newspaper Punch reported, citing GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks authorities spending.

In Kenya, the Controller of Budget, an impartial workplace that oversees authorities spending, confirmed a big improve within the workplace of the president’s journey expenditure within the yr to July final yr – which included 9 months of Mr Ruto’s presidency.

Overall spending for each home and international journey for the yr was over 1.3bn Kenyan shillings ($9.2m; £7.3m), exceeding the journey price range for the earlier yr by greater than 30%.

The Kenyan authorities spokesman didn’t reply to the BBC’s questions on Mr Ruto’s journeys, although the president and the spokesman have usually justified them.

Mr Ruto himself has mentioned he doesn’t “travel like a tourist” and the journeys are essential to get international funding and create employment for Kenyans overseas – he just lately mentioned he had secured greater than 300,000 job alternatives via negotiations.

After the current journey to Japan, Mr Ruto mentioned he had secured offers value greater than $2.3bn.

While stressing the advantages of the presidential journeys, each Nigeria and Kenya have additionally taken some motion to counter the criticism of presidency staff travelling overseas.

Kenya mentioned it had lower its civil service journey price range by 50% within the wake of accusations of “wastage” on home and international journeys. But this doesn’t appear to have affected the president himself, who has mentioned he is not going to shun journeys so long as they’re useful.

Last month, the Nigerian president introduced a discount within the official journey delegation by about 60%. The directive introduced by his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale included chopping down the president’s personal journey entourage, however didn’t say whether or not he would lower the variety of his journeys.

Yet is not only Kenya and Nigeria the place the price of journey has been a priority.

As Congolese residents ready to go the polls final yr, one of many criticisms of President Félix Tshisekedi was the variety of journeys he had made, with allegations that there was little to point out for it.

Last November, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera suspended all worldwide journey for himself and his ministers, and ordered all these overseas to return as a result of financial issues the nation was dealing with.

Some different international locations which have additionally needed to handle journey spending by authorities officers since final yr embrace Uganda, The Gambia, Namibia and Sierra Leone, with the leaders of the latter two labelled by native newspapers the “flying president” – identical to Kenya’s Mr Ruto.