NISER: High Cost of Governance Hinders Development

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan has stated that high cost of governance hinders development in Nigeria.

This position was premised on the findings of a research conducted by the Institute which analysed the effects of cost of governance on development at the federal level in Nigeria.

The research assessed factors responsible for the perceived high cost of governance at the federal government level in Nigeria, examined the structure of governance at the federal level in Nigeria and undertook a comparative analysis of the cost of governance in Nigeria and in selected federal democracies in developing and advanced countries while estimating the effects of the cost of governance on development in Nigeria.

Presenting the findings of the research at the Institute’s Research Seminar Series held yesterday, Dr Abubakar Oladeji, an Associate Professor of the Department of Political and Governance Policy, NISER and Louis Chete of Economic and Business Policy Department, NISER identified factors responsible for high cost of governance.

According to him “massive salaries and allowances of public office holders who are not more than  five of the population but control and appropriate up to 80 per cent of public funds as allowances and overheads; maintenance of large number of aides by government officials estimated to be between N1 billion and N3.5 billion on monthly basis which translates to between N12 billion and N42 billion annually; expensive democracy and huge amount spent to conduct  elections; high level of corruption and mismanagement of public funds as well as duplication of  functions among Ministries, Extra Ministerial Departments and Agencies of Government” (MDAs).

The research revealed that there is high cost of governance in Nigeria and that the high cost of governance has affected the performance of some development indicators in Nigeria.

 He remarked: “In view of the effects of high cost of governance on development, NISER recommends that Ministries, Departments and Agencies performing similar functions should be merged; there should be removal of extra budgetary allocations; there should be resizing of cabinet to a reasonable number; there is the need to adopt cost-effective governance practices; and deliberate efforts by the government to implement cost reduction measures by rejigging their governance architectures”.

Earlier In her remarks, the Director-General of NISER , Professor Antonia Taiye Simbine, in corroborating the  findings of the research by the Institute, submitted that reminiscent of the fuel subsidy debate that the Institute reflected on recently, commentators are quick to draw a connection between the high cost of governance and Nigeria’s depressing development outcomes.

She however said: “The simple argument here is that the cost of providing or administering governance should not be so drastically above the governance and wellbeing that is provided for the citizenry as is currently the case.”

 This notwithstanding, she said that the cost of governance remains one of the sticky areas of our democratic experiment.

She further said that  as good as the 2012 Orosanye’s Report on reform of the fovernment agencies was,  the legal processes involved in altering the status and structures of these agencies or the socio-economic impact of laying off too many people at  once have been partly responsible for non-implementation of the report till date.

 The DG hopes that “as the new administration at the centre takes steps to address dysfunctionalities in our economy and society, it would find some of the recommendations from our research as presented at this seminar useful in tackling high cost of governance “

“The panelists- Mr. Benjamin Akabueze, Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Professor Yusuf Abdullahi Manu, Federal University, Dutse, and Gabriel Okeowo, Country Directo, BudgIT Nigeria,  in their contributions submitted that the blame for  high cost of governance cannot be attributed solely to political office holders as public servants also aid and abet the anomaly through sharp practices such as salary/budget padding, non-disclosure/partial disclosure of government expenditure, increasing debt profile, systemic cause of corruption among others.”

Specifically, the panelists suggested movement of staff from areas of redundancy to areas of needs, automation of payment to plug leakages,  devolution of powers, prunning down the number of legislators, sustained political will, among others, to stem high cost of governance. NISER will be balancing the narratives between the need for equity and efficiency in service delivery by government, in order to address the stick issues in the Cost of Government debate.”