Under the presidential system, the cost of governance is high. The President is expected to preside over the Federal Executive Council, which is made up of at least 36 ministers and special advisers. In the Senate, there are 109 members. The House of Representatives has 360 legislators. The size of the government is huge, making the recurrent expenditure to account for over 65 per cent of the budget, leaving 35 per cent for capital projects. Besides, government officials always capitalise on loopholes to perpetrate graft. Therefore, national development is sacrificed on the altar of corruption. But, last week, President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) slashed their salaries by 50 per cent. They also reiterated their commitment to the anti-graft war to stem the misappropriation of public funds. Will National Assembly members, governors and elected officials emulate them? EMMANUEL OLADESU, RAYMOND MORDI and LEKE SALAUDEEN examine the renewed search for fiscal discipline and implications for the polity.
Politics has become a lucrative venture in Nigeria. To observers, government is attractive because of the pecks of office. Thus, the corridor of power is perceived an avenue for primitive accumulation by many elected officials, instead of an avenue for service delivery.
But, President Muhammed Buhari proposed a closure to the sordid past last week. He and his deputy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, slashed their salaries by 50 per cent, setting a good example for other elected officers.
According to the 2007 Remuneration Package for Political, Public and Judicial Officers released by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the President is entitled to an annual salary N14 million per annum (N1.171,568 per month). The Vice President should earn N12, 126, 290 per annum (N1,010, 524 per month). But now, the President will earn N7 million yearly. In four years, he will earn N28.1 m. Presidency sources said the Commander-In-Chief took the step to demonstrate his commitment to frugality and leadership by example in the face of the harsh economic condition.
At the weekend, there were also media reports about how the President turned down moves to procure new official cars for his office. The cars cost N400million. President Buhari said he will continue to use the cars left behind by his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Before adjourning its sittings last month, the National Assembly set up a committee to review the salaries and allowances of legislators. It was a populist move, which has been criticised for drawing bogus emoluments. Senate President Saraki explained that the parliament could not be indifferent to the public outcry about the legislators’ remuneration.
In fact, some governors had blazed the trail, following their inauguration. Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai and his Bauchi, Kano and Abia counterparts, Mohammed Abubakar, Abdullahi Ganduje and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, had earlier cut their salaries and those of their aides to cut costs. Explaining the reason for taking the line of action, el-Rufai said there is need to make sacrifice and judicious management of resource in a state that is weighed down by debt and liabilities. “The state of our state is abysmal”, he said, urging other indigenes to make sacrifices for the state to survive the excruciating economic hardship.
Ikpeazu, a former university don, explained that he imposed the austerity measure on himself, following the inability of the state to pay salaries of workers. He said the few elected public officials cannot be swimming in opulence when thousands of indigenes, especially worker wallow in abject poverty.
In Abubakar’s view, it has become absolutely necessary to cut the salary of the governor by 50 percent as a mark of leadership by example. Echoing him, Ganduje said earning a fat salary in the face of the current economic reality is untenable, adding that wastage should be reduced.
Many Nigerians have hailed the decision by the President and governors to slash their salaries. The drop in oil revenue may have made value engineering more compelling. But, they said the reduction of the cost of governance is an unfinished business. For example, the loopholes should give way. These include contract inflation by ministers and top civil servants, misappropriation and embezzlement of funds, extravagance and frivolous travels by government officials, hiring of multiple aides for elected officials, and jumbo pay for legislators.
Former member of House of Representatives Hon. Uche Onyeagucha advised the President to merge some ministries that perform similar functions. He even said that the anti-graft agencies-the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) can be merged to avoid duplication of structures for anti-graft crusade.
The former legislator also said that the cost can be reduced through other institutional approaches. He said: “Our economy should be run by expects and regulators. We must reduce imports. This will reduce the waste of foreign reserves. In Nigeria, we import toothpicks and cement. This is not necessary. This makes us to lose foreign exchange. Thus, it becomes expensive to run the government.”
A lawyer, Bisi Adegbuyi, said, if no conscious effort is made to cut costs, governance will only be for the benefit of those in power. “The cost of governance in Nigeria is humongous. We must find a way of reducing the cost so that people with sublime ability and who do not have a huge amount of money to spend on the electoral process will be interested in politics,” he said. Adegbuyi also called for the re-evaluation of politics to remove the perception of politics as an invested, adding that it is dangerous for democracy. He said many elected officials always hope to garner returns in post-election period.
He also urged the President reduce the size of the cabinet, saying that few ministers are required. In his view, the duplication of functions of ministries and departments is counterproductive. Adegbuyi also said that only competent and incorruptible people should make the ministerial list. He said, if corrupt people are appointed as ministers and special advisers, they will subvert the administration because leopards cannot change their skins. “We also need a renewed battle against corruption,” he added
The emoluments of legislators have often generated controversy. Onyeagucha acknowledged that the its expensive to maintain the two chambers at the federal levels and 36 chambers across the federation. Hailing the move to revisit the pay package, he said Nigeria does not need full-time lawmakers. “We only need part-time legislators at state and federal levels. This will reduce the cost of maintaining the legislature. Right now, the cost of financing them is expensive,” he stressed.
In the view of a finance and investment consultant, Mr. Akintunde Maberu, there is a huge disparity between the earnings of political office holders and workers. He said: “If you look at the percentage of those in the highest bracket, as against the percentage of the multitude in the lowest bracket, the disparity is much. It was in Zamfara State that I observed that five per cent of political office holders earn 75 per cent of the entire income of the state. I think the same thing applies to other states and the Federal Government.
“So, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Committee (RMAFC) ought to prune down the salaries of public office holders because that is its primary duty and responsibility. They ought to do that in consonance with the reality on ground because the country is bereft of funds at present. Therefore, it does not make sense for public office holders to continue enjoying the fat salaries and allowances that earning before now.
“RMAFC said it is going to review their earnings, but I don’t know whether the assertion is true or not. But, the President has shown the way; his body language has not only shown where he is going, he has gone ahead to put it into action and the Vice President has followed suit.”
Maberu said the leadership of the National Assembly and the governors are also expected to go along the same direction. In other words, the example of the President is expected to go down to all the strata of governance. He said: “If that is done, it would immediately have an impact. The recommendations of the Oronsaye Report were well thought out. One would have expected the previous government to have implemented some of those recommendations, but it did not.” Maberu added:”There are feelers already that President Buhari is going to reduce the number of ministries and that he would appoint technocrats into functional ministries, as against political appointees.”
Alluding to the report, he said the committee identified seven foremost ministries that should be manned by technocrats. He added: “The Oronsaye report is the key, but I expect that the federal government will have the political will to implement the recommendations of this report. In the past, there were similar recommendations that never saw the light of day.”
Maberu urged the government to take steps to jerk up its internally generated revenue (IGR) and explore new areas of revenue generation. Apart from oil, there are other mineral resources in the country that can also provide a leeway.
Nevertheless, he said scaling down costs would assist the government to kick-start its programmes because the effort to raise the IGR takes time. The Federal Internal Revenue Service, he added, could bring into the net those that were outside it.
The National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, said the administration should block the leakages in the system. He recalled that President Buhari promised to do do this during the electioneering campaign. He said: “These leakages are eating up what should ordinarily be used to develop the country. Most private estates in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos and other cities are owned by people in government.
“Even when you go to some rural communities, you will see some mind–boggling edifies erected by the same people and they hardly stay in these houses, except during festive periods when they visit home.
“I think the President should recover what I call all ‘recoverables’. The 50 per cent cut in salaries is good, if it is implemented down the ladder. It is a way of showing example to the people that the government is serious in its drive to eliminate waste. But, the more practical way is for him to go after the people that have stolen our common wealth. For instance, look at what is happening in Rivers State, where the governor has just announced that caretaker committees would take charge at the local governments. This sort of thing should not be allowed to continue. We are going back to the old order; to sack elected officials and appoint caretaker committees to run the local governments.”
Okorie enjoined the government to withhold funds that are due to local governments in states where local governments are run by appointed officials. “This should be paid into dedicated accounts that can only be released later to properly elected officials,” he added.
Human rights activist and President of Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS) Comrade Mashood Erubami said, to reduce the cost of governance, the huge recurrent expenditure must be a thing of the past. His words: “The immediate drastic cut-down from all areas of profligacy in budgetary and fiscal policies, combined with unsparing and non-discriminatory fight against corruption, should be explored. For the President to achieve meaningful development, serious attention must be placed on reducing the cost of doing business and governance in the areas of foreign travels, trainings and medical tourism.
“The high cost of doing business and governance has its roots in corruption, high interest rate, the provision of electricity for the manufacturing and industrial sector, and exchange rate. The high cost of running government also resides in the payment of unbacked and economically unjustifiable high salaries and emoluments, the payment of unrealistic subsidies and double terminal benefits, including life pension for political office holders, and the provision for constituency projects and allowances.
Erubami urged the government to raise a new team to device new and practical ways of achieving all-round reduction in the cost of doing businesses, through measures and strict exchange control mechanism.
He said: “Federal and state budgets should be subjected to public scrutiny and review to reduce extravagant and prodigal lifestyle through re- organisation, virement, weeding out ghost workers, reducing unproductive political office holders and vehicles in government convoy.These will reduce expenses.” Erubami said the yearly increase in recurrent expenditure and dwindling capital expenditures should be re-examined.
However, the pro-democracy activist said the greatest challenge is fighting corruption. In his view, corruption is an impediment to development. Erubami pointed out that trillions of naira are mismanaged, stolen and squandered yearly, either through direct stealing or non-remittance into the treasury by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
To lay the foundation a new Nigeria, he said government must, within the short time, introduce measures that will challenge past wrong business ethics and unethical political culture among the business class and the politicians.
Erubami stressed: “Corruption should be fought on two fronts. The bribe-takers and the givers should be treated as criminals. The bribe-taker needs to be penalised and the giver must be punished to send strong message that corruption will no more be tolerated under any guise.
“Former politicians who have pending corruption cases with anti-corruption agencies and courts should continue without undue pressure from government. Justice to take its course.”
Erubami said the President should be ready to step on toes. He said the government should “kill corruption before it kills Nigeria”.
He added: “The fight against corrupt practices should begin with diligent prosecution. Current cases of petroleum subsidy scam, PHCN scam, NNPC scam, $9.7m failed arms contract and police pension scam should be concluded to send a strong signal to Nigerians that corruption has become a crime and culprits will be prosecuted, and if found guilty, they will be sentenced to imprisonment.
“Those who steal public funds should be sanctioned to discourage others, so that people can know that public funds should not be used for private ends. Corrupt officials should be made to refund ill-gotten wealth.
“Every year, names of corrupt officials and those convicted for corruption should be published in the media. Also, those who serve diligently should be given awards. These will reduce graft in public places. The enforcement of the provisions of the laws in the EFCC, ICPC, Code of Conduct Act should not be compromised. Bribery must be outlawed.”
Erubami also urged the government to set up special courts to try corrupt officials.
A university don, Dr Adetunji Ogunyemi, decried the duplications of ministries and other instritutions for service delivery. He said the government should reduce the structures for function performance.
Ogunyemi, who teaches at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, lamented that many states are not economically viable. He said: “Many of them rely on monthly allocations to pay salaries. We should collapse the states so that we can have eight states that can be self-sustaining rather than having 36 states.”
Ogunyemi also called for the merging of local governments to make them viable. He complained about what he described as the over-representation at the centre. According to him, the Senate should be abrogated because the 360 members of the House of Representatives can offer adequate representation. He maintained that the Senate is a duplication of legislative process. “If we do away with the Senate, it will go a long way in reducing cost of governance,” he added.
The university don said a law should be enacted to make it mandatory that 40 per cent of the annual budget of every tier of government is committed to capital projects. “If this law comes on stream, it will serve as a check on government expenses, especially on overhead cost,” he said.
Ogunyemi cited the case of Osun State, which generates N187 million per month and spends N1.4 billion on salary and pension; whereas Lagos State, which generates N20 billion monthly, has a salary and pension liability of N7.3 billion. “The argument here is that states should pay according to their financial capability,” he said.
Legal luminary Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN) urged the tiers of government to study their financial limitations so that they can operate within the resources available to them. He noted that many state governments are copy cats; they embark on projects that are not relevant to the needs of their subjects.
Akintola said: “It is of no use copying Lagos, Akwa Ibom or Delta when your financial resources don’t match them. It is economic suicidal for Ekiti, Ebonyi and Gombe states to have the same number of ministries, commissioners and special advisers like Lagos, Kano and Delta. These states have one of the highest Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base.
“The IGR of Ikoyi/Obalende Local Government, Lagos State is higher than that of Ekiti State. I don’t expect Ekiti to have more than eight commissioners. The state is endowed with human resources, but less financial resources.
“I am happy President Buhari has resolved to have only 19 ministries at the federal level. In those days, what we used to have were Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Delopment; Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Budget Planning; Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development. But today, politicians have split each of them into three or four ministries to create jobs for the boys.
“Because of second term, governors are creating all sorts of offices, appointing a retinue of special assistants that have no offices or specific functions to perform, embarking on white elephant projects, building hospitals without equipping them. These are conduit pipes that must be blocked.”
