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Few days ago, President Bola Tinubu stirred the political atmosphere in the country with what may well pass as a correct sound bite, when he said he would cut down on the number of aides that will join him on his local and international travels. He expressed his intention to let the new order apply to the Vice President and other top officials of the administration. The statement mentioned the Office of First Lady too. Essentially, it is about cutting the cost of governance in the country. Good topic. Wonderful recollection, we must give him that.
Since he made the disclosure, trust Nigerians, everybody has been falling on each other to commend the President which is proper in this regard and then to open up discussions. If you are not a Nigerian you are likely to think it is entirely a new matter flowing with new ideas. It isn’t and this is the truth. Nevertheless, we take nothing away from the President; thinking in the direction he did isn’t novel but talking on it at this point in time, taking any action no matter how limited does something fundamental; it shows the matter is truly germane to our development, and much more importantly, it places this lingering matter on the front burner of very vital issues that require urgent national attention.
This is how much we can score him. The President’s outing, good as we have agreed it is, still contained its own contradictions. The mention of the Office of the First Lady, which is non-constitutionally provided for, raises issues about clarity of thought and vision. There is the question that if we truly desire to develop, and in the best pattern possible, it is not right to probate and reprobate at the same time. Cutting cost of governance means there is concern over available funds, very limited as it would always be chasing so many vital developmental projects. This challenge would always be. Solution to one problem creates a new one. No end to problem solving.
What is important is for any society to solve their challenges in the most sensible manner that people’s lives can be pleasant. They can live, be happy and find ways to exercise self actualization. This is very crucial, where the space for actualization is lacking, crises like we are already experiencing will be the vogue. It is a natural consequence that must follow any abdication of cardinal state responsibility. This is why some us hail President Tinubu for touching on this all important matter very early in his administration.
Where did the President’s intention fall short? His announcement was peripheral. It was a flash of the substance and not the substance. Reduction in aides on travels talking about cost reduction in governance is pittance when compared to what is wrong in the instance. What the country requires in this regard is substance. What is the substance in all of this? Simple! Take time to give the country policy position on “cost saving measures.” We need a comprehensive look in, call it review and you won’t wrong. The gesture I have said is good but he could have gone the whole hog.
Even if we were to be limited, questions still arise over the President’s outline on the matter. The President speaks of travel, what should be the nature of such travels? Or should such be left totally to him and his handlers discretion? In some yes, but in all we don’t think so. The President was at Owerri, Imo State capital on Monday to attend the swearing-in ceremony of a second term governor. Of what essence was such a visit and what was it designed to achieve, especially against the background that at the time of the visit hoodlums had invaded an estate in the federal capital of all places and abducted an entire family of over six persons and others from God knows where.
At the time he was in Owerri obviously not a state visit, even if it were to be, barbarians in our midst had killed three persons one of them a member of the household from the estate, they killed them and threw their lifeless bodies on an open highway for all to clear evidence of a country in big trouble. This dastardly occurrence was enough to shock our leaders and prevent any movement, even if a state visit had been scheduled, it was enough to call it off.
Citizens lives were at stake, but our leaders won’t be touched. As far as our political leaders are concerned, life must roll on irrespective of developments. After all the hungry citizens have become captives. They have lost power and their voices. They are castrated and left impotent. In saner climes, activities would cease temporarily and all national attention and efforts would be directed at fishing out the criminals but not here.
The President found his way to Owerri with al thel costs associated with the Presidential movement. Our President went to witness the swearing-in ceremony of a second term governor. Talking about cutting the cost of governance, many of our political leaders indulge in luxuries they won’t offer themselves from the returns of their private endeavors. Governors flying private jets to Abuja. Before the vogue was to keep huge edifices as residences for public officers whose job location were the states. Local government chairmen stay in hotels in nearby towns. This is the truth.
By now the issue of traveling ought not to arise for either the President or governors. Issue ought to be sparse and limited to very critical outings only. The scramble over search for elusive “foreign investors” ought to be over, done with and buried at the cemetery of bad memory. We have since seen that local impetus developed countries before foreigners could find the environment attractive. By now we should have told our leaders to leave out attending seminars abroad. We have had more than enough tutelage, what we require are sensible actions. Even if we don’t tell them, circumstances ought to knock the sense into them. Unfortunately, the way of the black man passes all understanding.
What is it President Tinubu should have done which he didn’t do? Look at the meaning of cutting cost of government. If he did he would have identified where the shoe pinches. We spend so much on overhead. Why? The simple answer is that there is breakdown in the bureaucratic system; there is no longer order in the way of doing things in the public sector. All processes have been bastardised. Recruitment has become political; it is not based on needs and available vacancies. Jobs are not advertised, leaders take in people to satisfy personal egos. The result is an bloated service. We pay people for doing virtually nothing.
We have job duplication. Military introduced this after they bastardised state institutions. When people are unable to think hard they reduce things to jokes. For routine police job we had to create another full department to handle, yet there is no corresponding efficiency and proficiency but we paid. Why should the army do roadblock duties and we pay the allowances when the police is there? We are not productive yet we want to spend money on non-productive sectors. We pulled out N12 billion naira to offset old bills and prosecute African Nations Cup football tournament that is ongoing in Cote D’ivoire but a look into activities in any of our health centres or agricultural farming options is almost a non-issue.
Why do our leaders have this penchant to over inflate contracts? Why do we embrace white elephant projects? Isn’t it curious that every leader in the country is doing “roads” yet our roads remain gullies. See our budgetary provisions, we spend and even do supplementary budgets, earn huge foreign exchange through crude oil sales yet we are ranked among the underdeveloped and the poverty capital of the world. Isn’t something wrong in the most fundamental way?
What is to be done? Solving a problem from the middle is no solution. The ideal is to start from the vital location where meaningful results can be obtained within a short time.
National conference is inevitable. As it is, there is no sense of a buy-in by all in current Nigeria. This is the plain truth. Those who chose to deceive themselves can continue. This will create a Nigeria and inbue sense of ownership, a factor very vital for sound development.
Next would be to decide the mode of production. Going full into crass capitalism call it Private Initiative for our purposes today without the foundational pillars will throw up the challenges we face today even in their most terrible forms. Private initiative for us means everyone on his own including God not many would care if God exist. We make our case worse by talking privatization and still use huge public funds to back privatized companies. This is madness of the first order.
We need to dust up the Oronsaye Report and see how many of the suggestions are still relevant. Above all, there is need for character build up. It should touch the line of indoctrination. We have seen that young ones are not immune to corruption and subversion. The young in public exposure are replicas of the preceding order. We have turned out to be very bad examples; that much we ought to know. If we are serious about cutting costs, what it entails is a return to the basics. We start from the foundation, cosmetic responses help no one at all. Perhaps the Cultural Renaissance should be part of it. It should be.
