Nigeria will get better and I am very Bullish on the long-term outlook of the nation. You may say that I am biased. Yes, I am biased because Nigeria has all the critical pieces to outperform. And those pieces will get to work soon.
In the next few years, I expect the following things to happen, not because our political leaders want to do them, but because they will play hail mary (as in American football) to avert a severe paralysis. Expect the following:
- Nigeria will have state police because distrust has built into the national police. The interview by the Osun state senator where he noted that Police arrest hunters more than AK-47-carrying herdsmen is a turning point.
- Fiscal federalism will evolve and states will control their resources and pay taxes to the federal government.
- With the fiscal federalism done, a new charter will emerge: decentralization of energy generation, transmission and distribution.
Why do I think these changes will happen? Nigeria is opening up to reality now. Yes, according to Nairametrics, Nigeria “has indicated that it plans to cut down on its personnel costs and merge Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) due to persistent low revenue”. Yes, Nigeria which has avoided that report from Steve Oronsaye Committee is returning back to the basis because there is no money.
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She said that current government spending cut has become imperative because, “We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.
We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures. Expenditures that we can do without.
Our budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary.
Mr President has directed that the salaries committee that I chair, work together with the Head of Service and other members of the committee to review the government payrolls in terms of stepping down on cost.”
The minister said that government would look to merge 2 agencies with the same mandate.
The Director-General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, had earlier said that low revenue collection and high recurrent costs have resulted in actual capital expenditure below N2 trillion ($4.88 billion) a year for a decade.
People, it is typical human nature: scarcity has always pushed humans to make hard choices. Nigeria in the next few years will be making hard choices because what made us siddon-looks are falling apart. From fiscal federalism which can ignite productivity to state police, unemployment and insecurity will push the federal government to try new things. Of course, we need to pass through the moments. But I tell you that things will be better in the near future.
The minister of Finance was crystal clear on what needs to be done: ‘She said that current government spending cut has become imperative because, “We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue. We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures.”‘ Can she be bold to make it happen while we wait for the other policy changes?
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“Our budget is filled with unnecessary expenditures”. And it was approved, sent to National Assembly, and got passed? And Madam Minister is now telling us “we need to work together, we need to merge departments with similar mandates”? Just listen to your Minister of Finance, it’s pitiful.
We elected and appointed people, pay them humongous wages and allowances, with the hope that they can make things better for us; but see what we are hearing. Shouldn’t people be returning the salaries and allowances they collected over the years, because they never did anything to earn the bucks? And you are optimistic that scarcity has forced them to think, what happens if revenues suddenly improve, will they have the character to remain fiscally disciplined or go back to their old ways? We learned from how low price of crude oil ‘stopped’ subsidy payments, and what happened immediately Oil prices appreciated? You are still learning about your people.
This is a very poor country, but we purchase cars for elected officials, can they simply manage their own old cars or hail a cab whenever they need mobility? That is what you call sacrifice and patriotism, but if we think they are too big for that, then it’s ridiculous to take them seriously.