Still on the Stupendous Cost of Governance - Editorial

Any development economist would easily posit that in order to attain optimum productivity in any given human endeavour, the entrepreneur must ensure the convergence of requisite effort and efficient utilisation of resources, in such a manner that would prevent or minimize waste. This pristine empirical fact which dates back to Adam Smith is the fulcrum on which probity and accountability revolves. It further operates as a parallel or an antithesis to corrupt and self-serving practices, particularly in government and leadership settings. Therefore, one inference to be drawn from this premise is that in any plausible march to growth and development and better standard of living for its people, a government must make pro-active and frontally conscious efforts to wipe out or prevent all forms of corrupt practices from its body politic.

An x-ray of the modus operandi of successive Nigerian governments since 1999 would reveal that politicians have always claimed to operate above board in the running of government, but a glean of their factual performance records would disclose only unbridled pillage of the public till, wanton recklessness in misappropriating scarce resources and brazen disregard for the wishes and aspirations of the electorates. Our politicians always claim to possess good and focused leadership qualities, except that they are not in the least endowed with the virtues of transparency, probity and accountability in the running of government. The result of all these deficiencies is the emergence of a system whereby a privileged few have grown so powerful so as to dislodge their massive benefactors. Yes, it appears our governments have grown so large that their immediate concern is no longer to serve the people, but to maintain and protect themselves and their numerous appendages. They now usurp the people’s entire commonwealth under the guise of being a public or civil ‘servant’, while the people who ceded power to them continue to wallow in inexcusable squalor and abject poverty.

This problem becomes even clearer if viewed within the context of the 2013 annual budget of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. Facts have been laid bare in the media to buttress the claim that Nigeria’s N150bn (or US$995m) 2013 budget is approximately 6.4 times higher than South Africa’s US$155m (or N24bn) budget for 2012/2013. Further examination of the two instruments reveals that while South Africa’s parliament is allotted a mere 0.14% of their national budget, Nigeria’s National Assembly (NASS) alone shall consume 3.02% of our national budget. Also, juxtaposition can be made with the presidencies of the two countries, where it can be seen that Nigeria’s presidency is profligate, because it spends almost two times more than it’s South African counterpart. For while the Nigerian presidency has been earmarked to consume N36bn (or US$228m) in 2013, the South African presidency’s budget expenditure for the same period is US$119m (or N19bn). These figures translate to approximately 0.70% and 0.11% respectively, of each country’s national budget. The choice of South Africa in making this comparison is deliberate, as that country commands the largest political economy in Africa. And the need to maintain and expand its sprawling first rate national infrastructure cannot be underscored.

Conversely, a perusal of Nigeria’s budget only reveals continuity with the devious trend of allocating humungous amounts to recurrent expenditure which politicians and civil servants will eventually use to maintain their unjustifiable opulent and outlandish lifestyles. Nigerian governments continue to churn out budgets with high and heavily padded recurrent expenditure patterns for the benefit of politicians and civil servants who, together, do not even constitute up to 2% of the population of the country. This implies that only less than 2% of Nigeria’s population derive direct succour from our commonwealth, while the greater 98% or more are left to languish in their own devices.

Meanwhile, very little attention is paid to the establishment of capital projects cum public infrastructure, like uninterruptible electricity supply, good roads, efficient transportation systems, workable health and educational facilities, etc., which are the major indices of development which any reasonable foreign direct investor would consider before making Nigeria his point of destination.  More so, there’s no gainsaying the fact that the interests of the larger 98% of Nigerians would only be served by the Federal Government of Nigeria through a well planned and executed capital projects scheme which would provide the needed public infrastructure for the benefit of the people. Or isn’t it worrisome to the Federal Government that, towards the twilight of the first quarter of the 21^st century, a country like Nigeria, with all the human and material resources at her disposal, is still grappling with the problem of epileptic power supply? It is obviously shameful! Yet, in the midst of this horrible deficiency, we maintain and continuºe to enlarge an already behemoth and surplus government bureaucracy that has achieved zero productivity to date, in terms of its impact on the well-being and standard of living of its citizenry.

Let’s not make the usual mistake of looking at the effect rather than the cause. In Nigeria, we live in a system where we are always told we have too much money (which the Federal Government has dubbed “excess liquidity”), upon which premise our unusually huge national budgets are based. But in fact, all this has done for us is to make our governments corrupt and reckless with expenditure – too much money in circulation will only lead to corrupt devices and stratagems aimed at self enrichment and aggrandisement and graft. There’s so much slush funds in the system, but there’s no growth in the real sector of our economy, which situation can only generate negative economic indices – high inflation rates, paucity of development funds, high interest rates, high investment risks, flight of seed capital, low investment morale, etc.

Isn’t it time for us to consider the intrinsic benefits in having just a unicameral legislature, particularly because 469 legislators in our bi-cameral legislature is bloated and over-subscribed for the job of law-making? When will expensive conducts like the culture of travelling around by politicians, locally or abroad, with a mammoth crowd in the name of “convoy” be stopped? When will our President begin to apply patriotic, nationalistic and befitting presidential considerations to his penchant for attending just any advertised international function? When will Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the de facto “Prime Minister” of Nigeria, drastically reduce the recurrent expenditure of government which she promised us in 2011 while seeking confirmation before the Senate? When will the Oronsaye Report that recommended efficient down-sizing and or consolidation of MDA’s in order to avoid wasteful duplicity of government functions be implemented?