Nweke: Blocking Leakages, Cutting Governance Cost Antidotes to Fiscal Crisis

•  Unveils seven-point agenda to guide his govt if elected

Gboyega Akinsanmi

 Amid intractable fiscal crises that have crippled governance in most states of the federation, the governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Enugu State, Mr. Frank Nweke yesterday identified blocking leakages and cutting the cost of governance as antidotes the governments could adopt to end the crises.

 Nweke, who served as the Minister of Information and National Orientation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, highlighted a seven-point agenda that would guide his administration if emerged as the winner of the March 11, 2023 governorship election.

 He revealed these measures during a chat with THISDAY yesterday, pointing out that the country’s current fiscal realities portrayed an uncertain future for the governments at all levels if workable strategies were not adopted in response.

 He mentioned the concern of a serving state governor, who confided in him recently that no fewer than 60 per cent of his state’s internally generated revenues (IGRs) always ended up in private pockets.

 Nweke, who also served as Director General, of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) between 2009 and 2014, recommended the urgent need to deliberately and consciously reduce the cost of governance as the first measure to address the fiscal headwinds.

 He explained that governments should consciously reduce the kinds of things they spend public resources on and some of these things included in their expenditures, especially within the executive office expenses and the kinds of overheads that people had to apply public funds.

 He, also, identified the exigency of blocking revenue leakages, especially in all strategic ministries, departments and agencies, was fundamental to managing the fiscal challenges that had been confronting the governments at all levels.

 Nweke observed: “There are significant leakages in governments across the federation. I had a conversation with a sitting governor not too long ago. In our estimate, we estimated that about 60 per cent of all internally generated revenues ended in private pockets.

However, the APGA governorship candidate further revealed that more updated research recently had suggested that far above 60 per cent of everything generated in the state did not get to the government coffers.

He said: “I am constrained to name the state involved. There was proof shown to us that this was the case. That made our team go back to the drawing board to work out what can be done to salvage the state’s fiscal situation.

“We, on our own, have identified beneficiaries of some of these things going on. Some of them confessed to us about arrangements that they have with the state government based on which revenues that I should remain for to form the public governance have gone to their pockets,” he observed.

He, therefore, said plugging leakages “is very critical to ending the fiscal crisis in the country. Aside from these measures, if elected, we intend to get revenue through engagement and partnerships with bilateral agencies around the world.”

 Asked what he would do differently if elected the governor of Enugu State, Nweke outlined a seven-point action plan, on which according to him, his administration would be anchored.

 The governorship candidate listed the programmes of action to include leadership, governance, security, human capital, investment in basic education, water resources and environmental sanitation.

 Speaking on how to address security challenges in his state, Nweke said: “We have on our own installed security cameras and put in place some security measures that barricades.

There is a controller command centre where we also provide support to the police. I believe communities can be encouraged to make these investments in partnership with the state government on an ongoing basis,” Nweke explained.

 On human capital, he said: “My strategy is to focus on primary healthcare. We have primary healthcare centres where you do not have nurses. We have intermediate healthcare institutions and general hospitals. We have doctors without nurses and without having the equipment to work.”