Background

Having witnessed the historic victory over the incumbent in the just concluded Presidential Elections, majority of Nigerians seem to be in support of the in-coming President. The general feeling that one gets in and around the country at this time is that of an expectation of a new Nigeria with the coming of this new government. While we believe that this is possibly the best time to achieve this, we understand that the degree of work required must be carefully dimensioned by the incoming government at this time. In trying to get Nigeria running again, the new government must be decisive in its actions and clear in its communication to Nigerians.
We believe that Nigerians do not have the patience to wait for the first 100 days of the new administration, before they know the direction in which their country is going. Clear statements have to made regarding the plan for a new Nigeria on June 1, 2015. The idea behind this is to get the people engaged and bought into the plan very early in the day.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS..
The state of Nigeria’s key accounts;
Position of foreign reserves
Position of the Balance Sheet of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Position of the excess crude account
Position of the accounts of all federal ministries.
The cost of running all the current Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies. With the fall in crude oil price and current state of the economy, if the cost of governance is not significantly reduced as soon as possible, the incoming government will soon be unable to meet its local obligations.
Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves

The first step is to verify the state of Nigeria’s exchange foreign reserves. There have been many speculations as to the true state of the country’s foreign reserves. It would seem that its position has moved from $34.469 billion as at December 31, 2014, to around $29.865 billion on March 2016. Over the past few weeks, the reserves seem to have taken a further hit. In order to know the true position of the external reserves, a swift and confidential due diligence exercise may be required.
The Central Bank of Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria is charged with the responsibility of regulating the activities of the economy and supervising Deposit Money Banks (DMBs). The CBN is also the government’s banker. In order not to be surprised by the true position of the CBN’s books, please see attached report of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) on the CBN. The FRC asserts in its reviews that the financial condition of the CBN appears to have been impaired by “incompetence, nonchalance, fraud, wastefulness…”. If the FRC’s conclusions are based on irrefutable facts, the financial statements of the CBN needs to be restated as soon as possible, i.e. corrected, to give a true and fair view of the Bank’s financial condition.
The soundness of the Central Bank is crucial for the following reasons:
Stability of Exchange Rates for the Nigerian Naira; a Central Bank whose liabilities exceed the value of its assets cannot sustainably participate in markets for foreign currency, whether at home or abroad.
Financial operations of the Government and Interest rates; a Central bank whose net assets are deficient loses its rate-setting capacities and its influence over flows of excess liquidity in the banking system. This accelerates outflows of currency from the economy as the public confidence in the Naira erodes.
Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies

Currently, the largest pull on the resources of the Nigeria is the cost of running the government. The government’s recurrent expenditure was 74.4% in 2011, 71.5% in 2012, 67.5% in 2013, and 74% in 2014. It is clear to those inside and outside of government that the nature of government currently operated in Nigeria is excessively heavy and unnecessary – with a retinue of ministers, ministers-of-state, permanent secretaries, special advisers, and senior special advisers all employed to carry out the same functions across a large number of government agencies. No nation can grow and develop with such an expenditure framework. No matter how much revenue this nation receives at the moment, if this trend is not radically changed quickly, Nigeria will be trading it into poverty in the near future.

In order to show seriousness in this regard, the president must review, revise and implement the Report of the Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies. (See attached). This would be seen by Nigerians as a bold gesture by the president and a signal of his seriousness to take Nigeria to a higher level of growth and development.

In conclusion,
The government of President Buhari and his team promised to take Nigeria to the next level, it is imperative that they determine the government’s current capacity to fulfill those promises.

FISAYO OKUNSANYA – SHADOW MINISTER OF BUDGET AND NATIONAL PLANNING.

www.shadownigeria.com

The FRC asserts in its reviews that the financial condition of the CBN appears to have been impaired by “incompetence, nonchalance, fraud, wastefulness…”. If the FRC’s conclusions are based on irrefutable facts, the financial statements of the CBN needs to be restated as soon as possible, i.e. corrected, to give a true and fair view of the Bank’s financial condition.

Insane.

Currently, the largest pull on the resources of the Nigeria is the cost of running the government. The government’s recurrent expenditure was 74.4% in 2011, 71.5% in 2012, 67.5% in 2013, and 74% in 2014. It is clear to those inside and outside of government that the nature of government currently operated in Nigeria is excessively heavy and unnecessary – with a retinue of ministers, ministers-of-state, permanent secretaries, special advisers, and senior special advisers all employed to carry out the same functions across a large number of government agencies.

They need to trim the fat but firing people is never popular. The government is patronage system using other productive sectors taxes to buy popularity. This is why we don't have much cash for infastrure. If Buhari can achieve reducing cost of government on exuactive level he done well.