Cost of Governance: Experts Prescribe Transition from Presidential System

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

Experts from different walks of life have called for a change in the presidential system of government to the parliamentary or a hybrid system that is capable of drastically cutting down on the cost of governance.
They spoke Tuesday in Abuja at the annual lecture of the Justfrends Club with the theme, “High Cost of Governance as an Impediment to Development.”
The guest lecturer, Dr. Sam Amadi observed that today, Nigeria is highly indebted to the point that it services  debts with almost 80-90 per cent its  revenue.
“We are not just a highly indebted country, we are borrowing to service the debts, further worsening our economic situation. We are stuck in debts after we struggled to free ourselves from debt under President Obasanjo administration.
“The first requirement of debt restructuring is to look inwards and restructure public expenditure. This is one reason for worrying about the rising cost of governance.
“Another cause for worrying about the rising cost of governance is how big government affects performance. This is not just about financial costs. It is about lack of optimisation and incoherence that an over bloated public service can exhibit. The essence of the public service is performance.
” If the bureaucracy is over bloated, it affects the efficiency and effectiveness of bureaucratic actions. Optimizing government through de-layering and restructuring is important for efficient performance,” he said.
Amadi who is the Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought stated that the issues to consider in a robust discussion about costs of government should be comprehensive and encompass institution/agency proliferation; distorted and misplaced priorities; rising overheads; duplication and overlap in the structure of the public service, and retention of perquisites earlier and purportedly “monetised.”
Others are budget indiscipline and accountability failure (resulting in miscellaneous leakages); and lack of accurate and up-to-date cost data (and early warning mechanisms).
During a panel discussion, different discussants squarely blamed the problem of Nigeria on leadership, the Regional Director for Anglophone Wesr Africa of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Dr. Felix Oisamoje blamed Nigeria’s problem largely on leadership, adding that the presidential system of government being practised worsened the situation with the attendant high cost of governance.
In the same vein, and oil and gas consultant, Dr. Ahmed Adamu noted that three reasons account for high cost of governance in the country,  including the desire by public servants to acquire wealth, psychological fear of poverty, as well as lack of belief and love for country.
He lamented that high cost of governance a traceable to high recurrent expenditure, high number of government agencies doing the same things, payroll fraud, large official convoys, security votes, huge estacodes and airfares.
Earlier in his remarks, the President of Justfrends Club of Nigeria, Fred Ohwahwa the topic of the lecture was most appropriate for the present time.
According to him, from whatever angle it was considered, Nigeria is an apology to its vibrant citizens, the African continent, and the black race.
“We are far behind in virtually all metrics of development. And this is in spite of abundant human and material resources the country is blessed with.  Our infrastructural deficit is scandalous; our education, health and other sectors are begging for quality intervention.

“This  unfortunate state of affairs is partly attributable to the high cost of governance. And this is at all levels of government. The time has come for us as nation to review our system of governance with a view to making the people the primary purpose of government