I enjoin everyone, every institution or organization to appraise, apply and spread this gospel as it is the solution to the problems besetting the country and it is of utmost urgency because the problems are increasing by leaps and bounds and gaining strength of an ever-growing giant which is continually pinning us to the wall. But don’t be dismayed. It is darkest before dawn, for with our back to the wall, we have been able to discover that there is a chink in the giant’s armour and the weapon to apply is appropriate cost of governance. Please read on:
When I wrote about the need to address the gargantuan and ever spiraling cost of governance
as a means of solving the myriads of problems confronting the country, little did I know that
there would be an outpour, openly, as we had during the End Bad Governance Protests.
Unfortunately, however, neither the protests nor the response by Mr. President touched on the
root of the problems. The holy book says “My people perish for lack of knowledge”. If Nigerians are aware that excess cost of governance is where the various challenges confronting
the nation are sourced and nurtured until they become the behemoth, the gigantic araba tree standing in the way of their progress and well-being, they could have drawn attention to the tap root which cost of governance represents with a view to felling the araba tree. It is not all problems that can be resolved with force. In fact, force does not solve problems it merely
sweeps them under. Our situation calls for sober reflection and introspection on the dilemma
facing the country with a view to finding a workable solution. An analogy may explain the
situation more clearly: When politicians are elected to manage the affairs of the country, it is
like giving them an open signed cheque to use the resources of the nation judiciously for the
collective. But because most of our political elite are bereft of integrity and sense of social
justice, they use the largest chunk of our resources for the smallest number, majorly
themselves. Politicking in Nigeria therefore is, in the main, a race for a big bite of the cake
rather than service to the nation as it should be. It is the insatiable appetite of our leaders for
wealth and power that has brought us to this dire straits.
The system of cost without constraint, that paints a picture of bottomless pit of money available for public spending, is the attraction of most politicians; and the ease with which they
appropriate the resources of the nation, mostly to themselves with reckless abandon, is why
everything goes awry with the country. We sure need a change. A change that will take us out
of the rot and ensure our desired steady progress. A system that will consciously limit the cost
of governance to appropriate portion of the nation’s resources; a standard cost of governance
appropriate to the level of the country’s development. But we continue to ignore this model as
solution to our problems at our own peril. “Odo ki i lojupon ka tun ma wogbe pon”. You don’t
need to enter the bush to fetch water from a brook when the seepage is in the open. Therefore,
if we have not addressed ourselves to the solution of our problems it is because the gospel has not been spread widely enough or because those concerned are feigning ignorance just because
implementation of the system of appropriate cost of governance will stem their greed, take the
feeding bottle out of the mouths of the over grown adults as it were. This piece explains the
imperative of (designing and) applying appropriate (or standard) cost of governance if Nigeria must get out of the rot and march on the path of development. The situation now is like a ship without compass but lost in a tumultuous sea. No matter the expertise of the crew, the compass must be found and applied for the ship to berth safely. Appropriate cost of governance is the missing compass.It is not enough to set up committees or appoint experts to address specific problems facing the country. The appointer must provide a roadmap and benchmark which will be the focus in making a cost/benefit analysis of the problems to enable provide solution. Even the best
economic expert will precede his opinion with: ‘all things being equal’. But all things are not
equal when costs and benefits are incongruously perched with cost of governance going
through the roof and benefits sinking to the nadir. Things don’t change by denial of the fact
but by taking concrete action in applying solution.
Tax and Revenue Generation.
The new law being proposed for tax and revenue generation is comprehensive and will, without
doubt, expand the tax net and increase the revenue of the nation. It is also comforting that the Committee is saddled with fiscal policy in its entirety. We hope that the committee will look
holistically at the cost structure vis a vis the resources of the country at the present level of
development in which case this paper will be a useful corollary to your recommendation. Laws
enacted or policies formulated with the backdrop of appropriate cost of governance will be far
more transparent and equitable and will engender trust, obedience and the needed compliance.
The National Peace Committee
The nation appreciates the steps taken by the National Peace Committee in the past, as elder
statesmen, to prevent war-like acrimony during political campaigns and elections. It is noted however that political parties and their candidates either shun the wise counsel of the elders or apply them in the breach in most cases. For a change, if political parties and their candidates
give their commitment to appropriate cost of governance theory, this will enable them realize that occupying a political office is neither a tea party nor an opportunity for unrestrained access to the treasury. This will be a better way of ensuring politics without bitterness and election without acrimony.
SERAP and Other N.G.Os
Without prejudice to your present system of monitoring and measuring government
performance which is historic, application of this theory is preventive and transparent. For
example, it is better and easier to critique a budget plan for its cost of governance content than
to cry foul after budget implementation and when corruption must have gained strength to fight back.
The Patriots and Elder Statesmen
Applying the system of appropriate cost of governance as a first step before any government action or decision will ensure that costs are incurred dispassionately without bias or selfish interest.
Therefore, well-meaning elders, who variously suggest return to parliamentary system,
restructuring, constitution review, separation, among others, may have to note that meaningful
and dispassionate decisions can only be taken (for or against issues) by those whose motives
are altruistic and not by those who engage in transactional politics in order to maintain the
status quo in their own interests. We have gone through that route before, spending about
twelve billion Naira, but the report of the conference is gathering dust somewhere in the villa.
Seek ye first appropriate cost of governance to ensure that all things will fall in place.
The President
Of a truth, the incumbent is not the sole ‘manufacturer’ of our self-inflicted problems. As
such, we cannot blame him for the effect of cumulative fiscal indiscretion of our past leaders;
but the buck stops on the President’s table as the numero uno. Sir, the nation bought into your “change” manifesto, hence you became President. A workable change however should not bebusiness as usual but rather transformative. Nigeria needs your magical change, Sir, not in the manner of the legendary Alimi yopayopa or Professor Peller, but in form of total turn around, a paradigm shift that will bring us out of the rot and map a way forward. If Mr. President can apply this appropriate cost of governance with half the zeal with which he announced the removal of oil subsidy and the revaluation of the Naira, the nation will witness a turn-around in the manner of biblical Samaria after the siege of Syria. It is only then that you will be the needed transformative leader that will bring Nigeria back from the brinks and leave an enduring legacy.
The Ruling class
Granting that Nigerians have been suffering from collective amnesia all the while, now that
the truth is out in the open, it should be a wake-up call for introspection and self-reassessment.
Everybody should add commensurate value and earn their keep in service to the nation. It will also be a preemptive step that will forestall obstructive revolution. There must be a complete turnaround, a political suicide as a writer aptly described it, meaning that the ruling class must be dead to the old system of politics of self-interest, what-isin-it-for-me, you- chop- I- chop.
When a hefty chunk of the resources at any tier of government is allocated to those in government, you are planting corruption ab initio. True democracy requires fiscal discipline, integrity and sense of social justice.
Political Parties & election candidates
The truth is that our democracy in Nigeria since the military interregnum has been merely on
paper , it has always been pseudo-democracy, democratic feudalism or feudalistic democracy whereby the ruling elite use the resources of the nation to feather their own nests as much as they can, leaving the rest (if any) to the collective like benevolent feudalists. You can deceive all the people some of the time or some of the people all the time, but you cannot deceive all the people all of the time. Your usual campaign rhetoric and promises of heaven on earth will
take us nowhere if a system of appropriate cost of governance is not in place.
You must be fair before you are kind and the way to display fairness is your approach to
adopting the appropriate cost of governance system: a workable platform and the minimum
expectation from any party desiring to rule. The system should be the foundation of your
manifesto and the bench mark for measuring your performance.
INEC
As the agency responsible for recruitment of the ruling class, your success can only be
measured by the quality of those elected to manage the affairs of the country. Democritus, in
his wise crack, said: the man enslaved to wealth can never be honest. This system of
appropriate cost of governance will separate the wheat from the chaff and provide a useful tool
for selecting honest and diligent candidates rather than those whose actions and values are
driven by greed and personal aggrandizement.
As Nigerians, we have collective responsibility to make Nigeria great again, but we cannot be
operating pseudo democracy and expect the dividends of true democracy. Let us apply
appropriate cost of governance as a tool and fiscal discipline to break away from the “sins” of
the past. Lack of integrity, corruption and absence of social justice must not be allowed to kill
Nigeria.
Aje Olukoya, a Corporate Governance Consultant writes from Lagos via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
