11 Jul 2011

Ijeoma.nwogwugwu@thisdaylive.com



The Jonathan administration just does not get it. If the stories that have been published in the newspapers in recent weeks are to be taken for gospel truth, then President Goodluck Jonathan either has his head in the clouds or is being ill-advised by the people around him. First, stories rear their heads in the media that the president intends to create new ministries in order to reduce the incidence of discord that arises between ministers and their ministers of state. The thinking in the presidency is that if new ministries are created, all 42 ministers will be at par and no longer have to bicker over the discharge of their functions.

Then another story makes its way into the papers that the federal government intends to create the Ministry of Information Technology to cater solely to the whims of the information technology sector, in isolation of the communications and science and technology ministries. As nonsensical as that sounds, the president then decides to over-crowd his office with a deputy chief of staff, a principal secretary and a coterie of special advisers for energy, internal affairs, social development, ethics and values, and gender issues. These new batch of special advisers, mind you, would expectedly busy themselves with matters already undertaken by ministries, departments and agencies under the federal civil service structure.

Surely, there is a disconnect somewhere. On the one hand, Jonathan deems it wise to create new ministries to eliminate schism between what we term senior and junior ministers, and on the other, he appoints special advisers (of cabinet rank) who would interfere in the day-to-day operations of the MDAs. In his desire to restructure the ministerial and special advisory portfolios to function with greater efficiency, the president is creating more chaos and an unwieldy, costly government.

But all this would not arise if there was rigour applied by the president and his minders on the restructuring of those portfolios and eliminating waste. As it stands, Section 148 (1) of the constitution grants the president enormous powers to assign any responsibility of the federal government, including the administration of any department of government to his vice president and ministers. The section states: “The President may, in his discretion, assign to the Vice President or any Minister of the Government of the Federation responsibility for any business of the Government of the Federation, including the administration of any department of government.”
The implication of this provision is that conflicts need not arise if the president, in his discretion, elects to delineate and assign specific roles to each of his ministers. Unfortunately, that kind of rigourous thought process and innovation is missing in this government. Otherwise, the idea of creating new ministries would never have been given consideration at a time when the focus should be on rationalising the public sector.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-cost-of-governance-iii-/94845/

part 2:

Clearly, the main reason the federal government cannot curb expenditure on the recurrent side of the budget has to do with its size. As human rights lawyer and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, pointed out in an interview over the weekend, the federal government has its hands in too many pies. It wants to invest in education, health care, agriculture, industry, ecological matters, and so on, which should be the responsibility of the states. But if power is devolved from the federal government to the states, a lot of these expenses taken on by centre would be eliminated, making it less attractive to political jobbers and their cronies.

Another reason stems from the lack of political will to take the tough decisions, constitutional and policy-wise, to cut down on consumption. For instance, the removal of petroleum products subsidies, as unpopular as it is, is one way of eliminating a major cost that does not get to the poor for whom it is intended. If it is the federal government’s desire to raise living standards and bridge income inequalities, a better way of going about it is by diverting subsidies - implicit and explicit - to areas such as agriculture where it would have the most impact. Another advantage of removing subsidies on fuel is the value added in the downstream oil sector, as petroleum refineries would function and fuel imports would become a thing of the past.

Well, the time for those tough decisions is upon us, as we can no longer hide from the fact that there must be improvement in the quality of spending by the federal government. Restoring fiscal discipline will be one of the first tasks Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in her expanded role as Minister of Finance would have to deal with in the months ahead. The good thing is that she has the mental fortitude and drive to push through reforms that would improve transparency in the public sector, and plug leakages and wasteful spending.
Okonjo-Iweala’s efforts, however, would have to be complemented by a directive to the Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government to commence a wholesale review of the public sector, without exempting any ministry, department and agency of government. Their terms of reference should include, but would not be limited to, developing a status report on all the MDAs; establishing their roles and effectiveness in undertaking the functions for which they were established; ascertaining the desirability of retaining them and the implication on the public purse; ascertaining those that carry out similar functions; making recommendations, including legislative amendments, to scrap or merge them; and most import, establishing the savings that would be made from sector-wide reforms and rationlisation.

Let no one delude themselves. For the Jonathan administration to undertake an assignment of this magnitude will be extremely unpopular. It also has the potential of being politically volatile, and will be resisted from all quarters, starting from the executive, legislature, states and local governments to organised labour and the media. But the goal for the president is not to win a popularity contest. And sometimes, unpopular decisions have to be taken for the greater good of the country. However, in so far as the objective is well-intentioned and would enable the federal government divert more resources to infrastructure spending, through which more jobs can be created and absorb the jobs losses from the public sector, then there should be no hesitation about taking the bull by the horn.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-cost-of-governance-iii-/94845/

part 3:

The real test though will be by leading by example. Starting from the presidency, Jonathan would have to start by cutting costs in his office and that of the vice president. Right now, both offices are manned by a retinue of aides that they can both do without. In addition to the numerous aides are the legions of parastatals that are statutorily under the presidency but would be more effective if they are granted autonomy to function as self-funding institutions like the Central Bank of Nigeria or the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Of equal importance is the need to prune the size of the presidential air fleet. The website of the Nigerian Air Force shows that the presidential air fleet has a current holding of 11 aircraft, mainly used by the presidency, national assembly and the judiciary. Other uses include the furtherance of the nation’s foreign policy objectives through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ECOWAS Secretariat, African Union, Heads of friendly African countries, and in support of peace-making efforts within the West African sub-region.
All well and good; it is obvious that we have one too many aircraft to spare with which we like to play the role of Father Christmas in Africa. But, charity, it is often said, begins at home. We must first learn to take care of the homestead before spreading our largesse all over Africa.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-cost-of-governance-iii-/94845/

We need a leaner public service and the man is busy creating ministries. We shall see. Nigerians should learn how to sack their servants (the government), even it requires protesting.