The high cost of governance challenge in Nigeria is not just because we have too many Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) as much as the fact that there are multiple agencies without clear-cut idea of how each reinforces the concept and project of development of the country, Dr Sam Amadi has said.
Dr Amadi, a former Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said that the nation’s quest to reduce the high cost of governance will continue to be a pipe dream unless it is pursued in a “systematic and effective manner” and articulated as part of “a strong and coherent vision of government” designed in “simple processes that enable us to deliver.”
Amadi, who spoke Tuesday on High Cost of Governance as an Impediment to Development at the 6th Annual Lecture of the Justfrends Club at Bolingo Hotels Abuja, said that this is imperative as “development requires coherent ideas and coherent practice,” adding that “we have to learn from nature itself.
“Nature fits organ to function. We have to create structure that matches function. Simplicity is an art of genius. We need simple system that are cost efficient and effective.”
Congratulating members of the Just Friends Club, a group of professional men and women working for the good of the society, Dr Amadi regretted that the array of well-educated and nurtured people professional in the nation has not translated into a “high degree of ethics and competence in corporate and public leadership in Nigeria.”
He noted Nigeria’s poor rating in corruption perception index and other indicators of public probity including poor rating of State effectiveness is rooted in the inability of the public sector to formulate and implement policies in a manner that achieves good governance and development.
Dr Amadi stated that “Nigeria faces an acute crisis of values which reflects in the gross lack of productivity in both its private and public sector. Nigeria is abundantly blessed in natural resources. As a world leading producer of oil, we ought to be richer than we are. But we know that the wealth of nations does not come mostly from natural resources. Countries like Singapore and South Korea are not so much naturally endowed. In fact, they are geographically constrained in many ways. But Nigeria won the geographical lottery in many ways. Yet are in many ways victim of Dutch Disease.
“Natural resources have not translated into wealth. They have mostly turned into a curse. Natural resources in themselves are not a curse. They are a blessing. But a blessing that call for more work to turn them into lasting benefit to the people. Some of the Scandinavian countries are endowed with oil like Nigeria. They turned theirs into a blessing through smart policies and management. For them, oil resources have lubricated national innovation system that has made them high income economies. Examples are Norway and Finland.
“Nigeria’s travail is partly the lack of good leadership that can mobilize citizens toward a virtuous path of productivity. Such leadership is often described as transformative or redefining.”
He added that “the problem of high cost of governance in Nigeria relates to the problem of the crisis of value, which is partly a problem of the crisis of professionalism. Anyone who reviews the economic and social indicators of development for Nigeria in the First Republic and early in the Second Republic will see a marked difference with contemporary indicators. There is a great decline in any of these vital indicators of human and social development. These declines somewhat parallel decline in professionalism in the same period. If we measure the quality of professionalism by the ratings of Nigeria’s tertiary institution and the level of knowledge production and ethical conducts of Nigerian professionals, we can conclude that loss of professionalism leads to stagnation in development.
“Today, we have a low-quality public education and a dysfunctional public service structure that weaken the capacity of the Nigerian state to deliver development. Capacity is an important ingredient of development. With low capacity a country may not be able to generate good policies and effectively implement them. Lessons from successful Asian countries underline the importance of state capacity. These countries succeeded because they have capacity to design good policies and implement them with coherence and effectiveness.”
Canvassing for a public sector recruitment based on merit, Amadi posited that “we have to pay good attention to the quality of the public service because it determines the possibility of escape from economic and social stagnation. The bureaucracy is the public service. The notion that what we need for economic development in Nigeria is an entrepreneurial private sector is actually a mistake. We need more of an entrepreneurial public sector. This is the reason we speak today about entrepreneurial states.”
Unfortunately, he said, “the current situation is different. The public service has lost its capacity and competence to drive transformative policies. The public service needs rebuilding. To rebuild the public service to become a true engine of economic growth and socioeconomic transformation, we need to re-entrench merit and professionalism in the recruitment, promotion and management of the public service, the rationalization of the structure of the public service and its reauthorization as the engine of development. The latter point requires a reconceptualization of the purpose and merit and rethinking the value of bureaucracy to economic and social development.”
On the rising costs of governance, Dr Amadi said: “We have ballooned the costs of governance such that we cannot free financial resources to invest in capital goods and services that will enhance our productive capacity. The fundamental theory of economic development is based on high capital formation. This means that the government should save and invest in capital goods like infrastructure-physical and social infrastructure. The elementary point about capital formation is that the government should reduce its recurrent expenditure in other to have enough funds for capital expenditure.”
In his welcome address, President of Just Friends Club of Nigeria, Fred Ohwahwa, said that “apart from the Public Lecture Series, we place a lot of emphasis on reaching out to the needy in the society. We have made it a duty that every year, sometimes multiple times in a year, to reach out to them.
“We have visited Old Peoples Home in Kado, Orphanages in Gwarinpa, Karu, Kuje; children with disabilities in Kubwa and Anawim Home in Gwagwalada run by Catholic nuns.
“In 2021, we paid the exam fees for indigent students in Government Secondary School, Jabi. In March 2022, we had a Career Talk Day with senior students of Government Secondary School, Life Camp here in Abuja. This year we have had Career Talk Day with students of Government Secondary, Wuse Zone 3, here in Abuja.”
Ohwahwa said that the choice of the lecture – High Cost of Governance as an Impediment to Development is most appropriate for the present time as “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.”
