It is often said that drastic condition requires drastic measures. The present recession Nigeria is currently facing requires a strong political will to change the tides of event, there has to be a break from the norm. The ever unending blame-game and passing of buck by the president to previous government is no longer palatable by teeming Nigerians and can only be compared to the playing of a broken record and seen as height of cluelessness on the part of Buhari-led administration.
In the face of recession, so many things that ought to have been jettisoned are still been carried on as it were during the economic boom days and to this end the masses are the ones who bear the brunts the most as they are always at the mercy of the federal and state governments. The current administration has also not shown any signs of taking the bull by the horn and adjusts to the current reality staring at all us all which is RECESSION .
I expects the federal government among other things to have reduced drastically its recurrent expenditure and focus more on capital projects which is capable of improving and injecting funds into the economy. Instead, the government still embarks on avoidable and unnecessary travels which gulps a fortune from our common wealth for such itinerary. Very recently, it was reported that the federal government expends about 35 billion naira in maintain about ten jets in the presidential fleet. If you took a retrospective look to the campaign of this administration before assumption of power, you would recall how APC criticized the then Goodluck Jonathan administration to high heavens for keeping such a large fleet which would pass for the second largest airline in the country and it is only normal for us to expect a swift downsizing of the presidential fleet either to convert some of the jets for commercial purpose or sell them outrightly and use the money realized from the sale for better investment in other areas that will be generating more income for the country.
The state governments too do not help matters neither as they indulge in all manners of profligate ventures which ends up running the state aground while they shift the blame to the federal government. Even in this current situation, state governors still collect security vote in billions and inflate contracts so as to siphon money and divert into several other personal endeavours. More importantly, instead of them to engage in pro-people projects, they embark on white elephant projects they cannot finish thereby wasting resources while the masses continue to wallow in abject poverty. It was reported in the news that Ekiti state governor is to build another government house which will gulp about 1.6 billion naira from the state treasury. Now, the questions begging for answers are: what happened to the 3 billion naira government house newly built by the immediate past governor, Kayode Fayemi? Is that what Ekiti state really needs at the moment? There are few states in the country that are trying to stay afloat even in the face of recession. Funny enough, even some seemingly rich state still owe their civil servants salaries for months not because there is money to pay but because they have failed to place their priorities right; they chose to prioritize politics over welfare of the people. States like Rivers state should not have problem paying salaries but the state governor is presently shrouded by the forthcoming election in the state and that of Edo state which according to reports in certain quarters the governor has made huge financial investment leaving the civil servants to wail.
The Legislature
The first step to cut down the cost of governance for any serious government has to be the cost of running the both houses of the national assembly. Safe for the overbearing tendencies of the executive, I would have called for the dissolution of the national assembly or better still, reduce it to just a body either the house of representatives or the upper chamber i.e the senate. It should still be fresh in our memory when the former CBN governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi alleged that the national assembly gulp about 25% of the nation’s budget. Despite the fact, that he was summoned by the national assembly for the dust he raised, he made good his claim by proving with documentary evidence backed with irrefutable fact to the chagrin of the “legislooters”. Although the Revenue mobilization and fiscal allocation committee (RMFAC) the body saddled with the responsibility of fixing the wages of public officers promised to see to the downward amendment of the salaries and wages received by the legislators, that was the last we heard of the story.
The financial independence of the national assembly i.e the act of not subjecting the budget of the national assembly to scrutiny also paved way for the increased corruption in the national assembly. The act of corruption they engage in is multi-faceted ranging from constituency allowance, various committees which they belong to responsible for the monitoring of different sectors which is always characterized by inflation of contracts, kickbacks and bribes just to mention a few. In fact, their various allowance is corruption in itself.
I therefore join the proponents of part time sitting for the legislator and a recommendation to drastically reduce the total income due an average legislator to reflect the current recession been faced in the country at the moment. The key to revamp the economy of the country is to reduce the cost of governance and according to development economist, there must be a “BIG PUSH” which means massive capital investment in major sector of the economy.