Poverty and poor infrastructural development in Nigeria and most African countries have been linked to high cost of governance.
Delta-born businessman and politician, Dr. Austin Izagbo, made the assertion in a public lecture entitled: “Strategic Right Sizing of Cost of Governance’, delivered at the convocation ceremony of the Strategic Business School, Lekki, Lagos, Distance Learning Students, in affiliation with the European American University
Dr. Izagbo stated that basically the cost of governance meant public funds expended on running the government and usually appropriated for in the budget of the nation or state.
According to him, the budget provides appropriated figures for capital expenditure, from where funds are drawn for the provision of capital projects and services in different sectors, targeted at the well-being of the people, while recurrent expenditure focuses on overheads, including payment of salaries, running costs and servicing of leaders.
He noted that Nigeria had been severally rated by the World Bank’s and other respectable global agencies’ reports as running a 70% to 80% usage of her entire resources in servicing the cost of governance.
The reason, Dr. Izagbo said, was not far-fetched, considering Nigeria’s over bloated government structure of the Presidency with its multiplicity of non-streamlined Ministries, Departments and Agencies, a bi-cameral legislature, 36 States with their Executives, Legislatures and Judiciary, equally multiple MDAs, and civil service, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the 774 local governments with their structures, councillors and staff, as well as a staggering amount of unpaid pension benefits by the three tiers of government.
The former Commissioner for Youth and Social Development in Delta State said the huge cost of governance had forced
Nigeria and several other African countries to resort to continuous borrowing from the World Bank, the West, China and other wealthy Asian countries, which had left the country seriously hemorrhaging.
Dr. Izagbo, while advocating the implementation of the popular Oransaye report on cost of governance, which made far-reaching recommendations, including reduction in number of federal MDAs, streamlining of state and local government functions, implementation of fiscal federalism, devolution of power, strengthening anti-corruption institutions, among others, called for a change in people’s evaluation of their leaders, ascendency to power and office, as well as the overall expectation of the people from their leaders.
He said competence, character and service orientation, as against dependence on structure and executive endorsement, must be given their rightful pkces if cutting to size to Fit for Governance in Nigeria must be attained,, and called for attitudinal change by both the leaders and the led, as well as policy reforms.
Dr. Izagbo acknowledged the Tinubu administration’s current efforts to address some of the concerns bordering on cost of governance, stressing that political will was needed to effect the changes to be able to mitigate the challenges of high cost of governance in the country.
He said cutting down the cost of governance was achievable, suggesting an all-encompassing stakeholders engagement and emulating countries like Rwanda and India where a fit For Purpose Cost of Governance was working
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