Recently, the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) urged President Goodluck Jonathan to cut down the cost of running the machinery of government. It specifically advised the President to merge some of the federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

It is hardly contestable that this newspaper has not only been in the forefront of denouncing the atrocious cost of governance, but has shouted itself hoarse on a major cause of stagnation of the country. Therefore, it is exulting that the government owned advisory body, composed of eminent
Nigerian citizens, has latched onto the crusade, carrying it to the doorstep of the President.

Indeed, it remains stupefying what ends the 29 ministries of President Goodluck Jonathan are to serve: Foreign Affairs; Finance; Defence; Justice; Interior; Agriculture; Commerce and Industry; Labour and Productivity; Health; Lands, Housing and Urban Development; Transport; Power; Education; Aviation; Information and Communications; Mines and Steel; Niger Delta; Petroleum; Environment; Culture and Tourism; Police Affairs; Science and Technology; Special Duties; Youth Development; Women Affairs; National Planning; Sports; Works; and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Nigeria, of course, envies the developed countries of the world and, indeed, has a plan to join them by the year 2020. Regrettably however, she has refused to learn from their frugality in public finance management. The United States of America, for instance, with a population of 308 million (2010 census), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $14.256 trillion and Per Capital Income of $47,701, has a Federal Cabinet of 22 members. It is most instructive that the U.S. has just 15 ministries. But Nigeria, with a population of 152 million (2010 estimate), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $341.572 billion and Per Capital Income of $2,249, has a bloated Federal Cabinet of 42 members!

What is more, whereas the U.S. Congress consists of 100-member Senate and 435-member House of Representatives, the National Assembly in Nigeria has 109 members in the Senate and 360 members in the House of Representatives! Why would the U.S., the model of our presidential democracy, have a Vice President that doubles as the Senate President while Nigeria, a very poor country, has a separate Senate President that feeds fat on the Federation Account?

The emoluments of Nigerian public office holders are equally mind-boggling. For instance, whereas an American senator earns $174,000 yearly, a Nigerian Senator is believed to receive about $1.7 million (N240 million) a year and a member of the House of Representatives receives about $1.45 million (N203.8 million). Even more numbing is the fact that whereas Section 70 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates that “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) may determine,” the national legislators allocate to themselves such allowances that suit their wishes.

We can draw more sobering lessons from contemporaries in the 60s – India and Malaysia – that have left the Third World and are now close to the First World. They regard financial prudence as an article of faith and do not reward their conscientious and committed legislators with such sickening remunerations.

Most regrettable is the fact that not a single item in the recent constitutional amendments touched on ameliorating the untold sufferings of Nigerians through reduction in the cost of maintaining the current governments – federal, state and local. The large number of ghost workers and idle hands in all ministries, departments and agencies of government and the innumerable political office holders continue to scupper any efforts geared towards revamping the economy of this nation.

We remember with nostalgia the giant strides witnessed in the three regions of Nigeria at the dawn of independence, when less than one-third of public revenues was expended on recurrent expenditure by the regions. Specifically, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first Premier of Western Nigeria, in his valedictory speech on May 22, 1959, spoke with felicity on the ability of its administration to keep the recurrent expenditure at 26.7 per cent!
We welcome the timely advice of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) and urge President Jonathan to move with deliberate speed to reduce, comprehensively and drastically, the current prohibitive cost of governance. In this connection, we call for the amendments of relevant sections of the constitution that could constitute a bottleneck to the campaign on moderate machinery of governance.

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