…Says cost of governance, crude oil theft, revenue leakages too high
A former Chairman of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) Caucus in Kaduna State and frontline Politician, Alhaji (Dr.) Ahmed Tijjani Ramalan, has advised President Bola Tinubu to stop the stealing of Nigerian oil, cut the cost of governance, earnings of elected and political appointees, looting of security votes, corruption in the civil service, revenue leakages tax evasion, economic and financial sabotage in oil, gas, ports and maritime sectors and channel the country’s wealth for citizens’ benefit Infrastructural development.
Ramalan, who spoke in Abuja, the Federal 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 have deep thinking about the allocation of our wealth in this country and distribution of our resources in this country, we can never get it right,” the APC chieftain told Voice of Liberty during the weekend, while reacting to the suffering in land due to the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Tinubu.
He argued that the earlier proposed palliatives to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal could not solve the problems of many Nigerians suffering with the astronomical rise in the prices of commodities and cost of living.
The Elder Statesman, however, expressed his belief that Nigeria would not surmount the problems even if Tinubu distributes N100, 000 to every family. He reiterated that the proceeds generated from the reduced cost of governance should be channeled to infrastructure and the country’s food security, human security, mass transport, education and health system.
“We are all aware of what’s obtainable in the public service; imagine a situation whereby somebody who rises to the highest level of grade level 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 emphasised.
The veteran Broadcaster recalled that recently, the African Development Bank (AFDB) noted that the bloated size of Nigerian government at the National, State and Local Government levels comes at a high cost of public sector expenditure and that its negative impact on the development process in the country was alarming.
Supporting the AFDB’s position, Dr. Ramalan reiterated that the cost of Nigerian governance at all levels is exceptionally too high. He cited a Federal Government Teaching Hospital that spends over N15 billion annually on personnel costs and less than N50 million on capital expenditures, while expressing disgust that the benefits only go to a small number of political elites in civil and public service, who demonstrate little concern for the welfare of the people.
He noted that although Tinubu has affirmed his interest in making progress towards managing the nation’s economy, the President needs to be prepared to cut the cost of governance and excesses, which according to him continue to retard the country’s development.
While observing that the economic crisis rocking the nation had been worsened by the removal of the fuel subsidy, Dr. Ramalan said now would be an opportunity for President Tinubu to prioritise access of poor and vulnerable Nigerians to basic socio-economic rights and dividends rather than the rich”.
Political economists have consistently affirmed that cutting the cost of governance in Nigeria would help manage the country’s economy, while the fund saving from it would be channeled to areas requiring development.
For several years, he said, many have raised eyebrows at the huge amount of money being earned by federal and State lawmakers, and over-bloated bureaucracies – large ministries, agencies and parastatals – which have become a cog in the wheel of Nigeria’s economic progress.
