2025: A TIME FOR SHARED SACRIFICE

There is extreme need to cut down on the cost of governance

Whether for an individual or a nation, the beginning of a new year is all about reflecting on the past and looking ahead to the future. As Nigerians join the rest of the world to celebrate the beginning of 2025, there must be a new resolution to do better. While leadership by example seems alien to many public officials in Nigeria, that is what a time like these demands. The economic downturn offers a great opportunity to prune the cost of running government at all levels. That must be the national resolution if the country is to grow and thrive. When public officials sacrifice for something bigger than themselves, it reawakens people’s faith in government and strengthens community bonds.

Unfortunately, even at a time like this, our public officers still allocate to themselves jumbo allowances while our legislators remain the highest paid in the world. Today, in most of the 36 states, salary arrears are mounting and so are pension obligations, leaving their workers in desperation and want. And with unrestrained official profligacy, many states and local governments are almost bankrupt while the federal government is piling up debts to stay afloat. There are indeed several questions begging for answers today about the structure of government. With houses of assembly in all the states, what is the justification for retaining the legislative council in each of the 774 local government councils and the six area councils in the FCT? Many other pertinent questions beg for answers. Does democracy have to sack the treasury to serve the cause of freedom? Can a democratic polity led by an unproductive elite promote development? Where the laws and rules for the appropriation of public funds are made by the same people responsible for the high cost of government, who will bring the system to order? But much more importantly, how long can we continue to sustain this gruelling rip-off at the expense of the poverty-stricken people of Nigeria?

Up till now, no tier of government in the country has taken steps to reduce the expensive cost of running the public service. Over 70 per cent of the budget still goes for servicing our parasitic bureaucracy. No government has reviewed projects that constitute a drain on public treasury. To worsen matters, across the country, there is no sign that we are going through tough times. Public officials still move around in long convoys while retaining hundreds of idle aides. In many states, there are scandalous pension package for ex-governors in terms of salaries for life, houses in the state capitals and Abuja, medical, vehicle and other hefty allowances.  At the federal level, some officers serve for four or five years and retire at less than 50 years of age in some agencies only to be paid an exit package running into hundreds of millions of Naira.

 Democracy is expensive. But it is scandalously more so in our country due largely to the personal aggrandisement and greed of the average Nigerian political office holder. However, against the background of recent policy decisions that have made life difficult for the ordinary people, should public officials at the state and federal levels still retain all their privileges? We believe that there can be no better time than now to review the structure of government in Nigeria. If the ordinary people on the street must sacrifice to keep the country afloat, those elected or appointed to serve them cannot continue to live in obscene opulence.

We wish all our readers a prosperous year 2025!