The need to cut down on cost of governance and profligacy in public office has become urgent given the huge debt the government has amassed over the years. The Federal Government and states currently owe at least N77 trillion in local and foreign debts, a development that consumes a huge chunk of government revenue in interest payments. This has constrained expenditure and investment in crucial sectors necessary to grow the economy. With a debt service-to-GDP ratio of 35 per cent and inflation at 22.4 per cent and debt service-to-revenue ratio of 111.8 per cent in 2022, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the liability is so huge, there is barely enough in the coffers to pay salaries. As a matter of fact, the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki had warned that if nothing was done to shore up revenues, the Federal Government would print money to pay salaries.
And one sure way for the new government of President Bola Tinubu to manage available resources efficiently is to cut waste and reduce duplication of services and agencies. There is an urgent need for the government at all tiers to embark on a reorientation of the attitude and mindset of public officers towards mitigating waste. Gone are the days when public office is seen as Father Christmas with little thought to leave something behind for upcoming generations. Experts have warned that it will take a minimum of 30 years to clear some of the debt governments have amassed, that is decades after the current office holders have left.
According to the Revenue Mobilisation and Allocation Committee (RMFAC), whenever the cost of running government (recurrent) substantially exceeds the percentage for capital expenditure, it leads to reduction in what is spent on other important sectors. The Commission warned that the cost of governance in Nigeria is alarmingly high and is not sustainable.
The Commission thus recommended strict adherence to budgets, reduction in number of political appointees, making political offices less financially attractive, merger of ministries and agencies that perform similar functions and stoppage of provision of houses and vehicles to officers whose allowances have been monetised as ways to reduce cost of governance.
Due to the menace bloated public expenditure has posed to successive governments, panels have been constituted to recommend ways to force down the cost. And there is a consensus on the way forward, but there hasn’t been the political will on the part of operators to decisively implement the recommendations.
Of note is the Steve Oronsaye panel, set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, with a mandate to restructure and rationalise Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies. Upon completion of the exercise, the panel submitted an 800-page report on April 16, 2012, which recommended a merger abolition and merger of 102 agencies, with others to be self-funding. A White Paper on the panel’s report was commissioned and the paper ready by March 2014. Two months later, an Implementation /committee was put together. But nothing has happened to the far-reaching recommendations.
There was also the Ama Pepple Committee to review new parastatals and agencies created between 2012 and 2021, after which the Ebele Okeke Committee was put together to draft a White Paper on the Ama Pepple report. Again, nothing was done on the part of the government to implement any of these recommendations; instead hundreds of additional agencies and commissions were created through legislative bills of the National Assembly. And the result is a bloated public expenditure.
Outside the public service, politicians have been known to indiscriminately appoint aides in excess of what they actually need. Their retinue of convoys constitutes an eyesore to the public psyche, as well as drain on the Commonwealth. The Presidential Fleet has been a source of concern for accountability bodies, who query the rationale for the Presidency to own not less than 10 aircraft while the country has no national carrier. There was also lack of accountability in the deployment of aircraft in the Presidential Fleet, with reports of the First Family taking undue advantage of the fleet to embark on private excursion and unprofitable, frivolous ventures. The net implication is that the cost of maintaining the Presidential Fleet had risen by 121 per cent in the last eight years of the Buhari government.
Tinubu has a strict challenge to show example in public accountability. This is the time to collate all the reports and recommendations on trimming down the bloated public expenditure of the government. He should demonstrate the political will to implement those recommendations at a time the masses have been called upon to make painful sacrifices in the aftermath of fuel subsidy removal. The new government must also cut down on borrowings because the weight of public debt on the country has become unbearable.
State governments that are in the unconstitutional habit of sponsoring citizens to religious pilgrimages must put an end to such illegalities. The Constitution mandates that the government “shall not adopt any religion as State religion,” therefore wasting public funds on pilgrimages is an illegal act. Subsidising the logistics cost for pilgrims is not an economic venture; it is citizens’ private affair.
Another vexatious drain on public resources is the excess funds available to members of the National Assembly. While the Legislature argues that its percentage of the national budget is comparatively insignificant, take-home pay of an individual legislature is massive and shrouded in secrecy. The allocation for the National Assembly in the 2023 budget is a hefty N169 billion, which includes miscellaneous severance packages. It’s on record that the Nigerian legislature consumes more than it offers the people and that must stop. Some have recommended part-time or unicameral legislature for the country to cut waste. It will be worthwhile for the new government to consider this as part of the general unbundling of the unitary system of federalism that was imposed by the military.
Budgets for social activities, such as feeding and hosting guests in Government Houses across the country must consider the austere season of the moment. Massaging traditional rulers with undue patronages should give way to intentional investment in rural areas where they (traditional rulers and youths) can be gainfully engaged. This is the time to get serious and repent from old and wasteful habits!
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