Sat Jan, 15 2011
Arresting the presidential profligacy
The recent news report that Aso Rock gulps a tidy sum of N1.57 million on food daily, provided yet another bitter-sweet cocktail, spiced with official profligacy and a dose of insensitivity to several millions of hungry Nigerians.
The total sum comes to N574 million in the 2011budget, about N168.7 million above that of the previous year of N405.3million.
But then, this amount is exclusive of the sum expended on foods eaten during sundry summits, under a different sub-head for "meals and entertainment." For 2010 that stood at N73 million. It would certainly be higher in an election year billed to usher in a new government, at the tax payers' expense of course. That may however, be only an icing on the presidential cake.
Our grouse therefore, goes beyond mere sentiments. It has to do with a troubling trend of government's spending spree on items that would naturally rank at the bottom rung of the ladder in more advanced economies. While food is man's constant contract with life and is naturally seen as an imperative, the same cannot be said of some fanciful furniture. For instance, "residential furniture" for the presidency is expected to milk the national till by a whopping N1.1 billion this year. To furnish the Vice President's two guest houses will cost our dear nation another N500million.These, in addition to the redolent food budget form only part of the N13.9 billion, meant to fund sub-heads to run Aso Rock in the coming months.
Other details reveal that the lounge of Aguda Guest House was extended for N50 million, while another guest house for the Vice-President's use was furnished for N50 million. That was in 2010.This year the ante is upped to N150 million to supply household equipment for the same buildings. Not left out is the Lagos-based Dodan Barracks with a provision of N400 million in this year's budget. This allocation and the fore stated no doubt raise not just our eyebrows but the critical questions of propriety, or otherwise in government spending.
It is curious to note, that budgetary votes for the same items reported to have been bought or paid for in previous years are listed again to be taken care of in the current budget. This is out rightly fraudulent. Besides, there is no value for money if Dodan Barracks, which the president hardly visits is to have such huge sums expended on. We are compelled to ask if we are operating a feudal system, complete with emperors and an avaricious ruling class or this is Nigeria's own version of democracy.
Can this administration, in all honesty, justify the huge budgetary allocations to the purchase of furniture and frivolous furnishing of guest houses at a time not less than 20 million Nigerian children go to bed haunted by hunger every night? At a time millions of Nigerians are victims of Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM)? Could the staggering sum of nearly N14 billion, earmarked for the seat of political power not have been drastically pruned down to provide a meal-a-day for recipients of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) as recommended by the United Nations, U.N.? Could it not have been used to provide a few power stations? Or, embark on rail roads to ease the tremendous traffic pressure on the country's pot hole-dotted roads?
A country described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as having some of the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the world ought to be more frugal in satisfying the epicurean tastes of government officials at the expense of the long-suffering citizens.
Is the presidency unaware that the Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) is worried that Nigeria repeatedly posts one of the highest figures of household food insecurity amongst the oil-producing states, year after year?
We are of the firm belief that a country bedeviled by decrepit infrastructure, incessant power failure, where banks cannot make loans available to the real sector should prioritise its expenditure. A country with an alarming poverty rate of over 75 per cent of its citizens, up from 15 per cent as at independence in 1960 should devolve more money to capital projects that would rejuvenate the economy.
In a world battling to extricate itself from the global financial crisis, the presidency ought to learn from the former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown who lives an austere life in a two-bedroom apartment at 10, Downing Street, London. It should also borrow a fresh leaf from the United States, where sustained public attention on President Barack Obama and his household is on to ensure that all forms of frivolous lifestyles are belted under tight control.
But ours has become the world's most wasteful democracy because our leaders have refused to see political appointments as the platform to serve the state, rather than the self. More so, because we conduct government affairs in a veiled unitary structure that sustains a bloated democracy, too much resources are concentrated at the hands of political appointees.
Short of sounding like a cliché we call again for the restructuring of the polity back to true fiscal federalism. If the federating units earn their money rightly, its leaders would spend it judiciously.
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