CUTTING THE COST OF GOVERNANCE

I remember General Muhammadu Buhari reading out his letter to Nigerians after the failed bid to over-turn his 2011 Presidential Elections defeat at the Courts.It was quite an emotional scene.He not only came across as someone who wanted to change the system so bad he had to leave some words of advice for the victors but also as someone who was very much in tune with reality-For Nigeria to work,it needs to save costs.You just had to love him for that.
There were a lot of criticisms back then of the enormous amounts being allocated to State Governments as Security Votes on a monthly basis.Not only was it unconstitutional,there was no fool-proof means of holding them accountable for those sums.General Buhari most laudably,in that letter advised the government to abolish Security Votes.
Fast Forward to 2015.

GMB is now President-Elect.One on whose shoulders lie the great burden of making Nigeria work again.Politicians talk a lot but only few remember the very words that won them elections.It was most pleasant to hear the President-Elect's plans at the Lagos Business School meeting where he was represented by Dr Kayode Fayemi a few weeks ago.He talked about heeding the Steve Orosanye report by cutting down the size of Ministries and Agencies; ones that are redundant or having overlapping functions.
The Niger-Delta Ministry is always one of the first things i remember whenever I have cause to talk about the Cost of Governance in Nigeria.The plain truth that will never change is that it was created as a pawn in the amnesty deal with the Niger-Delta Militants.The Government should save itself billions by scrapping it.We could placate those militants with an increase in salaries and the sorts rather than running a whole ministry.
By promising also to run a lean government,I wouldn't expect any 'Minister of State' appointments.An office many still believe exists to cater for political cronies and disciples.A Substantive Minister aided by the Directors and Permanent Secretaries in their Ministries would do instead of having a 'Deputy Minister'.Nobody says he has to appoint a minister from every state in one fell swoop.
The merger of the Code of Conduct Bureau, the EFCC and ICPC as recommended by the Steve Orosanye Report is long overdue and the President  has promised to breathe life into it.But I am also concerned about agencies like the Civil Defence Corps and the Federal Road Safety Commission(FRSC).We don't need them.

Nigeria is regrettably,a largely under-policed nation and what we need do is scrap these outfits and draft as many members of these agencies as possible into the Nigerian Police Force to improve it as the Police can create arms to perform both their roles like it is done in advanced countries.The police in those places ensure abidance to all traffic laws among other things.It is always sad to hear people complain of having just one or two policemen at the Police post in their Villages.

Monies being budgeted for the Civil Defence Corps and FRSC will go a long way in helping us recruit,train and equip more hands.
The most pathetic part of our extravagance is the remuneration for Public Office holders.None of the cases instituted under the Freedom of Information Act for the salaries of our lawmakers to be made public have yielded the desired outcome and as such one would have to go by the last figures which surfaced in 2013.Ones that prompted Prof.Itse Sagay to tag them the highest paid Lawmakers in the world.A petition by the Diaspora Institute for Nigerian Justice and Accountability (DINJA) demanding a reduction in their wages late last year suggests the figures haven't changed.The  Nigerian Senator earns N29.5 Million every month which is way more than his American Counterpart earns in a year.He receives a staggering N10M as motor vehicle allowance and a separate N1.863M as Car maintenance allowance in the breakdown of their salary.

In addition,a Senator is said to get N44M as constituency allocation every quarter while his representative counterpart gets N35M.This is highly unacceptable.In the most efficient Federal Systems in the world including the United States, State governments oversee the affairs of such 'Constituencies' while law makers focus on their role; legislative business and that is how it ought to be.
Constituency allocations in Nigeria are more or less gifts to lawmakers because they are not held accountable for the money.With a President who has already identified and wants to take steps to tackle the high cost of Governance,i can't help day dreaming a bit.We could end up with a very functional rail system,free basic health care and free education across the country if indeed we spoil lawmakers this silly.
Politics is big business in Nigeria and one can't help but be wary of people who grant us loans knowing all this because you get a feeling they actually want to help us self-destruct.Nigerians have suffered for too long.Mr President-Elect has himself pointed out that 90% of our budget is on recurrent expenditure thereby leaving insufficient funds for capital expenditure.We see money not being looted by politicians being squandered or put to non-optimal use.We have voted for change and change we should get.