By Our Reporter
The governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has said the political elite is not taking seriously the fiscal challenges that the nation is faced with. He further notes that many in political offices across the three tiers of government have been confronting these challenges with the same old approach as though the nation doesn’t have any crisis on its hands.
According to the governor, “It appears that a significant section of our political elite is of the view that the revenue crisis does not require any serious and concerted action, as if this country can behave like the ostrich and just muddle through, while the problems will resolve themselves and the good times will return without any effort.”
While speaking on the topic, ‘Reducing the Cost of Governance in Nigeria’ at the Birthday Colloquium for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Internal Affairs, on 29th May 2021, El-Rufai, a former Minister of the FCT, pointed out that the fiscal challenges confronting the nation requires drastic measures which the political class in all the tiers of government does not seem to have the will to pursue.
In his words, “It is fitting that his (Aregbesola) birthday event includes this conversation on one of the most pressing public policy issues facing our country today. Many Nigerians are aware of and are understandably anxious about the security challenges which confront the country. This requires immediate response by launching coordinated military operations to reclaim ungoverned spaces, alongside steps to recruit more persons into the security agencies and provide them better equipment and technology.”
He further explained that. “Aside from insecurity, another threat confronts Nigeria. Our country is sitting on a fiscal cliff-edge. Public revenues are falling. NNPC earnings are almost entirely devoted to funding petrol price subsidy, leaving little or nothing to contribute to the Federation Account. Tax revenues at federal and state levels at not more than 7% of GDP, are considerably lower than the global, and even the African comparator nations average of about 20%. The Federal Government is severely indebted. It is maintaining an overbloated public service, but is limited in its ability to sufficiently fund its mandates for security and infrastructure. In 2020, the federal budget for roads was about N200bn, but over N800bn was spent on fuel subsidy in the same year.
“Each one of us knows what we will do in our private capacities when our incomes reduce or even stay stagnant. We will most likely respond by cutting our expenses while seeking other ways to enhance our incomes. Neither of these coping mechanisms is evident so far in our national response.”
The governor’s submission comes in the wake of a suspended strike action by the NLC over the rightsizing of the bloated workforce which the Kaduna State Government embarked upon in order to reduce the heavy cost of governance and free resources for developmental purposes. It would be recalled that in the course of the strike, other state governors who had similar fiscal challenges and a bloated civil service did not come out in support of the action of the government of Kaduna State, a fact over which Governor El-Rufai had since publicly expressed his displeasure.
