COST OF GOVERNANCE VS RESTRUCTURE : WHAT FORMER VICE PRESIDENT ATIKU ABUBAKAR MEANS BY THE CALL TO RESTRUCTURE THE NIGERIAN FEDERATION
COST OF GOVERNANCE VS RESTRUCTURE : WHAT FORMER VICE PRESIDENT ATIKU ABUBAKAR MEANS BY THE CALL TO RESTRUCTURE THE NIGERIAN FEDERATION
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
2nd June, 2016.
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I share the view that, Nigeria needs to be restructured, but I can assure you that the issue of restructuring Nigeria is a “constitutional” matter not just by“an Executive Fiat”.In my understanding, the only way to restructure Nigeria is true “constitutional amendment” and it will on average require a minimum of three (3) years to amend the constitution all this being equal. The idea of restructuring Nigeria is about reducing the country’s political structures or offices in order to reduce cost of governance. Many analysts have advocated for “lean” government otherwise non as “small” government which means few officials will be appointed in order to reduce cost of governance.
Many analysts belief that we have too much “political structure” in the country that is why we can hardly develop. For many years about 85% of our federal and states budgets go to “recurrent expendidure”due to too many “political” and “administrative” structures. Nigeria has 36 states, 774 local Governments, 109 Senators, 360 Federal House of Representative members, 978 State House of Assembly members, an average of 36 Federal ministers, with presidential advisers, the Senate President and his deputy have 112 and 60 advisers , the Speaker of House of Reps and his deputy have 170 and 58 advisers, the 109 Senators have 545 legislative aids paid by the government(5 aids for each) and the 360 House of Represent members have 1,800 legislative aids all paid by the government (5 aids for each member), state commissioners, advisers to the state Governors, as well as councilors depending on the state.
Nigeria is just about 160million but has at a time we had 42 ministers, America with about 300million population as well as richer than us has only 20 ministers, and United Kingdom has about 15 ministers which most be parliamentarians. Nigeria has over 900, Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and Parastatas (MDAs) .Many analysts argued that our political offices are too much for the country to bear the expensive. Huge resources are used in sustaining few indiduals instead of the larger majority. That is why recurrent budget is very high instead of capital budget which is for projects; such as: Roads, schools, and hospitals etc.
“…Nigeria has about 36 sates, India, has 30 states… In india the largest state, Utapradesh, has about 120miliion people and the smallest state in the North –East can range between 20million,but most of them are in the middle of 50 to 80 million people…” –Former deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Daily Trust: March 31,2016:p.19).
Mallam Nasir El-Rufa’I had long a go held this idea for small government thus: “In an article that got me arrested on 2nd July, I drew attention of Nigerians to the fact that in 2011, every Nigerian - all 162 million of us - man, woman and child will pay the federal government the sum of N27, 685 each for the running of government - this is the budget for the year divided by our population, with 75% of it going into non-productive, non-capital spending. I added that what we cannot afford, the government will borrow on our behalf to pay for its activities. This is because our entire oil earnings for the year cannot pay the salaries and allowances of politicians and public sector workers and their 'overheads' - their tea, coffee, travel and estacode. Almost the entire amount of the capital budget for this year is scheduled to be borrowed - that is what they mean by 'budget deficit'! Whether you know or not, every hour, 24/7, the federal government spends slightly over N381 million on our behalf, on its staff, offices, vehicles and the like, and none of this goes to build power plants, roads or railways!”
It costs nearly 2.5 million naira on the average annually for the upkeep of each of the federal government's nearly one million public sector workers – in the police, civil service, military and para-military services and teachers in government schools and institutions. Whether this amount justifies the service that is rendered is left for Nigerians to decide. In all, the 49 line Ministries, Departments and Agencies mentioned in the 2011 Appropriations Act will each cost an average of N49.49 billion to run. That is why we should ask questions when ministries are created and more ministers are screened by the Senate and sworn in! Each one costs billions!”
“Why do federal ministries, departments and agencies cost us so much? Each ministry has at least one minister - some have two or three, with a permanent secretary, and on average eight directors. The ministers and permanent secretaries have personal assistants, special assistants and special advisers. Each of these expects to drive an SUV or two to work, complete with police orderlies and other file carriers. Then they will need houses, furniture and running costs of the vehicles and utilities. The costs of all these somehow find their way into the overheads budget of the ministries, and makes a complete nonsense of the monetization policy we implemented in 2004!”
“Comparative Costs of Governance: At the comparative level, very few countries match the high cost of general administration in Nigeria. The United States, the largest economy in the world, with a GDP of some US$ 15 trillion has a federal cabinet not exceeding 20, less than half of that of Nigeria. The cost of general administration represents less than 10% of the federal budget of the USA. Contrast that with the figures in Nigeria ranging from at best 55% to as much as 75% of the budget, we are now witnessing. The estimated proportion of general administration to GDP adding up federal, state and LG expenditures is over 20% of GDP. A state in the north I visited recently spent 85% of its total revenues on the running cost of the government. How can that state develop?”
“The rich countries spend an average of 10% of their budgets and/or GDP on the general administration of their countries. China and India have the largest bureaucracies in the world. But their average annual expenditure on general administration is only about 12% of GDP, and that is considered high, but at least the results are showing - these are the fastest growing economies in the world that have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the last decade…” NASIR AHMAD EL-RUFAI, OFR, THURSDAY, 22ND SEPTEMBER, 2011.
Senator Shehu Sani on restructuring Nigeria said: “…if we are serious about economic reorganization of Nigeria, we must take the bull by the horn and move towards reorganization of the country. We don’t need 36 states, we need six states. Let’s the geo-political zones serve as states. We don’t need states that will come to Abuja every month and collect money to go back. We need states that will be able to generate money and be viable to contribute to the central. We also don’t need two parliaments, because what is happing now, with the number of Senators and member of House of Representatives, when a motion or Bill is raised in the house of representatives, it is also raised in the Senate. So you will see duplication of functions and then you will have large number political elites that need to be serviced by the economy of the state. We are 170 million people and if China can have 19 provinces with a population of almost, 1.5 billion people, then Nigeria with a population 170 million people are having 36 states, and it is not sustainable. All persons with political ambition should swallow it. North-Western sate should have its capital in Kaduna, North-Eastern state should have its capital in Maiduguri, and North central state should have its capital in Lokoja, South-Eastern state should have its capital in Enugu, and South-South have its capital in Portharcourt. If we work on this, we will be saving a lot of money and we will end this dependency syndrome. We need true federalism, not this cap in hand federalism. We need federalism which states will be empowered, to develop at their pace and also to generate revenue to be able to fund their programme and ambitions”-Senator Shehu Sani, (Leadership Sunday: March 27, 2016:p.21).
“Nigeria doesn’t need 36 governors,’ Emir of Kano says The Emir made the comments on Thursday, March 10, 2016, while speaking at the inaugural lecture of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Sikiru Adetona in Lagos. Sanusi also described the current system of government being practiced in Nigeria as wasteful. “You sometimes wonder if anyone needs to tell any group of persons that you don’t need 36 governors, 36 deputy governors, each with commissioners, special advisers, a president, his vice, 36 ministers,” Sanusi said.“Simple arithmetic would tell that if you have this structure, you are, first of all, doomed to spend 80 per cent to 90 per cent of your earnings in maintaining these public officers.“This is really is a big problem in Nigeria. I remember as the CBN governor when I raised the point that 80 per cent of government revenue was being used to maintain 1million public officers, leaving 20 per cent for over 160 million Nigerians, my state governor reacted by saying the federal government was planning to recruit more people.
“The situation we are in isn’t an unforeseen one so we need to go back to the basics and basic common sense by tailoring our political system to the level of development and resources of the country. We need to free up the resources and invest them so as to free ourselves from these problems we are having,” he added. Sanusi also said that the system is expensive and unsustainable and advised that the number of public officers in the country should be reduced.”
In another forum he said: “The bloated size of governments at different levels of Nigeria’s political system is unsustainable, and the country urgently needs restructuring to make any appreciable development, the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, said Thursday”
“Mr. Sanusi, who was speaking at the inaugural lecture and launching of a N250 million endowment fund for the Oba Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair in Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, said it should be obvious to everyone that the country can no longer afford to maintain the number of political office holders in the country, especially in the face of current economic downturn”.
“Kano State today is much smaller than Kano emirate, because there are two other emirates in Dutse and Ringim which were carved out from what was the Kano emirate just to create a new state. There are two governors in Kano and Jigawa, two deputy governors, maybe 40 members of the House of Assembly, 40 commissioners and advisers, 70 local governments, chairman and councillors but for nine years, Governor Audu Bako with nine commissioners, one governors and nine commissioner managed the entire territory and they were doing much better services than we are doing now. Is it not time to face reality?”
On Resource control, In the first Republic the Regional Governments generate their own revenues and retained 50% thereafter remitted 50% to the Federal Government. That time there was “competition” among the regions in terms of productivity. The North was generating its revenue from “Groundnut”,” Cotton’, “Hide” and “Skin” etc; the West was generating its revenue from “Cocoa”and Cassava and the East was generating its Resources from Palm karnel etc. In the United States of America their system allows the federating units (states) to generate their revenue and pay “tax” to the federal Government.
The people of the South particularly the South-South people have been advocating for resource control whereby every state will control its resources and pay tax to the federal government. This system if adopted presently it will affect the north but I am convinced In no time it will make the north to wake up and harness its God giving Resources which is agriculture and other mineral resources. In Nigeria there are 34 different kind of mineral resources in Nigeria mostly located in the North, but the states cannot harness them because is a federal resources and on the other hand, the Federal Government is not interested in them because of cheap oil revenue, but with “Resource Control” it means mineral resources will be left to the states to harness their own resources and pay tax to the federal Government.
However, the present revenue allocation sharing formula is 54% for Federal Government, 26% for state Governments, 20% for Local Governments. On the other hand, 13% of the total revenue before sharing goes to the eight(8) oil producing states of: (1)Akwa-Ibom,(2)Rivers ,(3)Beyelsa,(4)Delta, (5)Edo,(6)Ondo,(7)and Abia states with the exception of Cross Rivers. Cross River state was an oil producing state but with the ceding of Bakassi Peninsular and the supreme court judgment that confirmed the “eight” oil wells that they once had falls under the territory of Akwa-Ibom they are no longer an oil producing state.
Restructuring Nigeria will be a good idea but it appears practically impossible. Can we get the two-third majority senators or Federal House of Resps Members or States assembly members sack themselves? Which state will agree to merge? States creations in Nigeria were products of minority agitations or ethnic dominance not economic viability. We have about 18 areas demanding for states creation; such as: Gurara, Karaduwa, Borgu, Tiga, Apa states etc.
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Historical evolution of Nigeria shows that states in Nigeria were based on ethnic agitations. Nigeria started with Northern protectorate, Southern protectorate and the colony of Lagos (1903) .The 1914 amalgamation brought the protectorates as well as the colony of Lagos together to be called “Nigeria.”Interestingly, Sir Arthur Richard constitution of 1946 was the constitution that divided Nigeria into three regions of: Northern region, Western region, and Eastern region. By the year, 1963, Nigeria became a republic where we got additional region called Mid-western region. After the creations of these regions they were continuous agitations from across the country.
The agitation for the creation of Middle Belt “from the North, led by Joseph Tarka in 1955. In the past the Niger Delta people who would hardly want to seat side –by side or see eye-eye with the majority Igbos in South Eastern part of the country then, sought for the creation of Niger Delta region through their political party called Niger Delta congress, NDC. In the defunct western region people from Benin area environs equally sought for the creation of Mid western region which the got; from the defunct Northern region also Borno youth movement, BYM, sought for a regional status at that time.
However, the concept of state in Nigeria was introduced by the government of Gen. Gowon in 1967; the General created 12 states from the four regions. Kano state, kwara state, Benue –plateau, north- central state, north- west state, and northern state from the defunct northern region. Lagos state, western state, Mid-western state from the defunct western region. On the other hand Rivers state, south-eastern state, and east central state were created from the defunct eastern region.General Murtala/Obasanjo regime in 1976 in created additional seven states which makes it nineteen then, namely: Anambra state, bauchi state Bendel state Benue state Borno state Crosss River state Gongola state ,Imo state Kaduna state Kano state , Kwara state Lagos state Niger state ,Ogun state Ondo state,Oyo State, Plateau state Rivers state , and Sokoto state.
Gen. Babangida, IBB, created additional states between ,189-1991,which makes it thirty states then, namely: Abia state , Adamawa state, from the defunct Gongola state, Akwa Ibom state ,Delta state ,from the defunct Bendel state ,Edo state, from the defunct Bendel state, Enugu state Jigawa state Kastina state , Kebbi state, kogi state, Osun state Taraba from the defunct Gongola state, and Yobe state. Gen. Abacha in 1996 created six additional states making it 36 states today. These states are: Bayelsa state, Nassarawa state, Zamfara state,Ekiti state,Gombe state, and Ebonyi state.
The six geo-political zones are not constitutional the idea only came up sometimes 1995-1998 towards the build-up 1999 constitution; the promoters of it argues that ,for political expedite the country needs to be zoned. One must add that, this concept of zoning is yet to be included in the constitution .On the federal capital territory, Gen. Murtala Mohammed set up Justice Akinnola Aguda commission sometimes in the seventies saddled with the responsibility of relocating the seat of the federal capital territory. It is pertinent to note that, for security reasons the seat of any government needs to be at the middle of the country not at the coastal area as was the case for Lagos then. Not surprisingly, the commission recommended the Abuja as the new seat of government having been fully convinced that Abuja and environs is the centre of the country called Nigeria. May God bless Nigeria!