Cost of governance refers to the expenditure incurred by a state in carrying out those activities that would facilitate the achievement of the objectives of governance. It comprises mainly recurrent expenditure, captured in the annual budget, which is divided into personnel and administrative or overhead costs. Indeed, there has been a loud outcry over the burgeoning cost of governance in comparison with the quantity and quality of social infrastructure in the country, on one hand, and in comparison, with other socio-economic indices.
The large political industry and public servants’ disobedience of the tenets of honesty, integrity, loyalty, accountability, transparency, discipline and over virtues that would have facilitated better service delivery account for this unusual expenditure. The implication is that while citizens are poorer at every political dispensation, and suffer from squalor, insecurity, and violence, political office holders and top civil servants are richer, acquire properties, and live large and lascivious lifestyles. The bogus cost of governance is evident at a glance in the country’s federal budget.
But it is also applicable in the 36 states. In the 2023 national budget, for instance, personnel and administrative costs were designed to gulp as much as N6.10 trillion, of a total budget of N20 trillion, for which as much as N10 trillion would be borrowed from diverse sources.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken a few economic steps that free up some money for social infrastructure, but increase the burden on ordinary Nigerians who barely have access to financial resources from government. If, for instance, the subsidy on each litre of petrol was actually N345 per litre, and as many as 62 million litres were consumed every day, it means that N21.3 billion is saved daily and N642 billion monthly. The burden is passed to the ordinary Nigerian. The planned increase in electricity tariff, devalued naira, and reduced funding of tertiary education would place more burden on the man on the street.
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It is, therefore, unacceptable for the new government to maintain the lavish cost of governance that does not deliver the goods to the Nigerian people. The new administration must drastically reduce much of the overhead cost and reallocate them for the provision of social amenities. The cost-cutting may begin from weeding out repetitive and suspicious expenditures, like computers, software, printers, photocopiers, furniture, maintenance of buildings and the like to the barest minimum.
It may be followed by a halt to frivolous trips to foreign countries in order to grab allowances; outrageous feeding costs; meaningless conferences that do not manifest in improved staff performance; and even the purchase of new vehicles every year.
A review of much of the overhead expenses in various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) is imperative, considering the fact that many of the MDAs do not, in actual sense, fulfill their mandates, in spite of the personnel and overhead expenses they gulp every year. In the last few years, governments have given the impression that the much-talked about Stephen Oronsaye’s report of the merger of several agencies would reduce the cost of governance. But in reality, such a measure may not achieve the desired results as long as what the agencies do is to pay staff salaries and live comfortably on the overhead cost.
We call on the new administration to take a closer look at issues like the monetisation policy which is often times abused. Many public servants are allocated houses and vehicles, though they receive the cash equivalent for them under the monetisation policy. There is also the gross abuse of the Service Wide Vote, which is now slush fund for government officials who have access to the highest authorities. Top public and civil servants seem to have unlimited funding set aside for their medical expenses that enable them to embark on medical tourism.
Worse still, Nigerians are made to pay taxes, some of which are not remitted to the treasury, just as portions of Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs) are diverted to private pockets. The cost of running the National Assembly should be revisited and must be made transparent. This government must not ignore the report of the Auditor General of the Federation, which shows how public servants misuse public funds and never give account because there are no consequences for doing so. And as the federal government takes the lead on this, we expect all states to follow suit.
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