Olumuyiwa Adu, a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo, has advised President Bola Tinubu to cut the cost of governance, especially on the earnings of political appointees, and channel the country’s wealth for citizens’ benefit.
Mr Adu, who spoke in Akure, Ondo State capital, explained that Nigeria’s economic problem was beyond distributing palliatives to the people, especially to mitigate the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.
“Except we sit down and think about the allocation of our wealth in this country and distribution of our resources in this country. Then, we can never get it right,” the APC chieftain told reporters during the weekend while reacting to the removal of the fuel subsidy by Mr Tinubu.
He argued that the earlier proposed palliatives to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal could not have solved the problems of many Nigerians suffering with the astronomical rise in the prices of commodities and cost of living.
The politician believes that Nigeria won’t surmount the problems even if Mr Tinubu distributes N50,000 to every family.
He reiterated that the cost of governance should be channelled to infrastructure and the country’s education system.
“We are all aware of what’s obtainable in the public service, imagine a situation where somebody that rises to the highest level of grade in the public service and has worked for over 30 years, yet he’s not earning up to N500,000.
“And you elect somebody to a place where he is supposed to formulate policies for the society to be good, you are paying them twenty million naira in a month, we can’t get it right except we cut the cost of governance,” he said.
Recently, the African Development Bank (AFDB) noted that the bloated size of government comes with a high cost of public sector expenditure and its negative impact on the development process in the country was alarming.
Supporting the AFDB’s position, Mr Adu said the cost of Nigerian governance is exceptionally too high while expressing disgust that the benefits only go to a small number of political elites who demonstrate little concern for the welfare of the people.
He noted that although Mr Tinubu has affirmed his interest in making progress in managing the nation’s economy, the president needed to be prepared to cut the cost of governance and excesses that continue to steal the country’s development.
While observing that the economic crisis rocking the nation had been worsened by the removal of the fuel subsidy, Mr Adu said: “It would now be an opportunity for Tinubu to prioritise access of poor and vulnerable Nigerians to basic socio-economic rights and dividends rather than the rich.”
Political economists have consistently observed that cutting the cost of governance in Nigeria would help manage the country’s economy while the fund saving from it would be channelled to development.
For several years, many have raised eyebrows at the huge amount of money being earned by federal lawmakers, and over-bloated bureaucracies – large ministries, agencies and parastatals – that have become a cog in the wheel of Nigeria’s economic progress.
