The immediate past Spokesperson of the Senate, Ajibola Basiru, yesterday, urged President Bola Tinubu to cut down the cost of governance by reducing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government, adding that saving cost should not only be on National Assembly members.
Basiru, who stated this while addressing journalists in Osogbo, threw his weight behind the removal of fuel subsidy and that of the naira, adding that the results would favour Nigerians through provision of public infrastructure.
He alleged that agencies of government get between N10 and N20 billion from the national budget with nothing to show for it, stressing that such MDAs should be scrapped to pave way for basic amenities that would be beneficial for the people.
The former commissioner in Osun State averred that it was too early to praise Tinubu’s administration even though it had started well, adding that a lot of wastages go into the recurrent expenditure in Nigeria and urged President Tinubu to trim down the size of government appointees to save cost.
Basiru said: “Asiwaju Presidency has a manifesto called Renewed Hope and it addresses areas of overall economic prosperity, security, health, infrastructure and others.”
“It’s too early to now begin to praise the administration.
“In the area of subsidy removal, there are actually two subsidies that were removed, but we only talk of one. The first subsidy is the one all of us know and that is the petroleum subsidy. Second is the one I call naira subsidy. It’s a situation whereby different windows for acquisition of foreign exchange by which you allow for a volunteer economy and a kind or arbitrary system that does not really translate into real productivity and cutting Nigeria’s opportunity for foreign direct investment.
“So, I think with this very important step, the international community is beginning to see that Nigeria is ready for business. Governance is a serious business, and not just a matter of patronage like some people would want to say. We want to put round peg in round hole.
“A lot of wastages go into recurrent expenditure in Nigeria. So, there will be a need to trim down the size of government, not only about the popular thing like Legislative arm, but in terms of the Executive arm.”
As it is today, we spend no less than 8.5 trillion in recurrent expenditure for non-debit recurrent expenditure, this does not go well for development, so, I expect Asiwaju to take the bull by the horn and ensure that we trim down the size of government so that we can free resources for the real economy and real development of the land,” he noted
Basiru said Tinubu’s government is committed in coming up with palliative and urged the administration to think it through before coming up with palliative, block leakages and prevent bureacracies from affecting the beneficiaries of the programme from accessing it.
According to the former lawmaker, what public office holders and civil servants are earning is unrealistic going by the current economic situation and further called on Tinubu to address proliferation of bureacracies and agencies of government that are not doing anything.
He said: “Realistically, without corruption, the existing salaries of anybody in Nigeria including the President is unrealistic, looking at the state of our economy. It’s not question that it is high, the salary I know of a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is less than a million naira. So, when we want to address issue of cost of governance, we should not base it on salary. The salary of the President, I don’t think is up to 1.5million naira and ditto for the governor. The non-debit recurrent expenditure in Nigeria is about N8.4 or N8.5 trillion, it’s only a fraction of that that goes to the payment of salary of those category of people you are referring if you want to cut down.
“So, even if you don’t give any salary to political office holders, you will save nothing. I will give you an example. The whole salary of the National Assembly today is less than 200 billion. So, take 200 billion out of 8.5 trillion naira, let’s assume you scrap the National Assembly because they are earning too big, it’s still a fraction.
“The real cost of governance is what I said President Bola Tinubu should address and that’s the proliferation of bureacracies of government, agencies who don’t render any services and draw on recurrent expenditure, without any capital vote and without any deliverables for those agencies and they are quite many. Some agencies draw as far as 10, 20 billion as recurrent expenditure without any capital vote, which means that you are only collecting money, salaries, allowances and nothing to really put for it and they are quite.
“So, when you are talking of cost of governance, I want us to see it from restructuring the bureacracies of government and not just about few individuals that you think are elitists and earning larger than life. Even if you scrap everything they earn, and just as President Tinubu said, the present salary structure either you are political office holders or you are civil servants is unrealistic. If you reduce these bureacracies, can’t we pay professional money so that people can actually work honestly, diligently and deliver on democracy.
“So, we must stop seeing public service as act of charity, it must be professionalize and we must see that they deliver. An agency, the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency, go and check their 2023 budget and see what they are doing whether they are actually doing anything.
That’s just one of the example of agencies I am talking about. So, cutting cost of governance shouldn’t be about politicians if the purposes of governance is to expand infrastructure, open up the economy,” Basiru noted.
