The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) expressed concern over the current excessive cost of governance, highlighting its detrimental effects on infrastructure, social service provision, investment, employment, and security in the nation.
Attributing the high cost of governance to factors such as the expensive presidential system, an oversized bureaucracy with redundant ministries, and pervasive corruption, the commission emphasized the draining of public resources and hindrance to economic development.
In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Nwachukwu Christian, in Abuja on Sunday, the commission underscored the necessity of developing a competent and cost-effective management system to maximize national resources for the benefit of all.
The statement read, “The problem of the cost of governance is responsible for the reduction in the provision of infrastructure and social services and the consequent fall in investment, high-level unemployment and rising insecurity in the country, adding that no society can make meaningful progress unless it develops a competent and cost-effective management system capable of maximising the nation’s resources to the benefit of all.
“The cost of governance over the years has been very high and alarming and therefore unsustainable as recurrent expenditure continues to significantly exceed capital expenditure, thus negatively impacting investment, industrial expansion, infrastructural development, and growth of the real sectors of the economy.”
“The high cost of governance in Nigeria was caused by the expensive nature of the presidential system of government, large bureaucracy, duplication of government ministries, departments, and agencies, and endemic corruption. Other factors were the high cost of public service delivery due to infrastructure failure, high-security costs as a result of insurgencies, kidnappings, ethnoreligious agitations, armed robbery, multiple salaries and severance allowances; extravagant activities and expenditures, high domestic and foreign debts, and weak enforcement institutions,” it added.
