State House Splashes N194 Million on Tinubu, Shettima Travels in a Single Day

Investigations conducted by SaharaReporters, utilizing Nigeria's GovSpend public payments platform, have brought to light that the State House disbursed a staggering N194 million within a single day for official journeys undertaken by President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, alongside other associated costs. These payments, as documented on the portal, were all processed on April 30, 2026. A closer look at these financial records reveals that N79.4 million was allocated for "Presidential trips and other related expenses" under the purview of Vice President Kashim Shettima's office. On that very date, the State House made another payment of N15 million for "Presidential trips and others," also linked to the Vice President's office. Furthermore, the records show an additional N100.6 million was paid on April 30, 2026, specifically for President Bola Tinubu’s official travels and related expenditures. Cumulatively, the State House's spending on presidential travel-related costs for both the President and Vice President amounted to roughly N194 million on that particular day.

This recent revelation emerges against the backdrop of previous discoveries by SaharaReporters, which indicated that President Bola Tinubu's administration spent approximately N1.5 billion on acquiring air tickets within a single day. A thorough examination of the GovSpend portal's data indicated that several payments for identical purposes were processed on December 24, 2025, channeled through various State House sub-accounts and private travel agencies. SaharaReporters' analysis of the portal detailed a N237 million payment into a State House sub-account specifically for air ticket procurement on December 24. Subsequently, an additional N134.4 million was deposited into the identical account for the same objective on the same day. Deeper scrutiny of these records further uncovered direct payments made to commercial travel firms. For instance, Overland Travels and Tours Limited received N226 million on December 24, 2025, for the purchase of air tickets. The GovSpend portal also registered another N239 million payment into a State House sub-account on the same day for air ticket acquisitions, followed by a subsequent N346 million payment to the same account for similar expenditures. This pattern of spending continued with further disbursements to travel agencies. On December 24, 2025, Overland Travels and Tours received N153.5 million for air ticket purchases, while Travel Options Limited was paid N96.8 million for the same service. The records also reflect an additional N136.5 million payment to Overland Travels and Tours Limited on December 24, 2025, again for the procurement of air tickets. Aggregating all these recorded payments for that specific day, the Presidency's total expenditure on air ticket purchases amounted to roughly N1.5 billion in a single day, as per the GovSpend data scrutinized by SaharaReporters.