Speak Out Africa Initiative, SOAI, has advised the newly appointed ministers to cut down the cost of governance.
The Executive Director, SOAI, Kenneth Eze made this known at a state of the nation press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.
Eze also also called on the cabinet members to declare their assets for trust, transparency and accountability.
The statement reads thus:
You are welcome to the 2nd edition of the State of The Nation Briefing on Reducing the cost of Governance at all levels. As we know, the new administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken off with inauguration of very bogus cabinet ministers of about 45 of them as against the expectation of most Nigerians whose hope to see a sizable cabinet were dashed, coupled with the delay in assigning and re-assigning portfolios.
Furthermore, the very fact that some portfolios are yet to be filled calls for question and discredit the rationale for such retinue of ministerial appointees. While, Mr. President is to be commended for prompt re-assigning of minister of youth designate from a man believed to be out of tune with current realities and challenges facing the Nigerian youth at 62, we must show our total displeasure for president’s seeming action in assigning the minister of petroleum to himself. We bemoan this dangerous pattern because it shuts avenue for Nigerians to query and interrogate the actions and inactions of the widely described juicy sector. In our opinion, the president already has enough responsibility as Grand Commander of Federal republic of Nigeria (GCFR). We therefore call on Mr. President to rescind such move as a listening and democratic leader.
With the help of our “Governance Tracker: CRiG.ng” which spotlight government activities, advise, checkmate and promote cost effective governance at federal, state and local government amongst public office holders with overall goal to reducing cost of governance in Nigeria.
And in line with our mandate to deepen democracy and promote good governance at all levels through accountability checks and evidence-based advocacy, Speak Out Africa Initiative (SOAI) has TRACKED a number of emerging issues which has necessitated today’s press briefing.
Please sit tight as we highlight these developmental issues as well as present our recommendations:
There is no time for learning, SOAI tells New Ministers; Set KPI for them and Government.
The Politics to Governance index (PGI) is a measure that assesses the effectiveness of political systems in achieving good governance. It evaluates factors such as transparency, accountability, rule of law, and political stability to determine the quality of governance in a country. The CRiG.ng Governance tracker can confirm that the current PGI of the country for the 1st quarter May – August (3months) is not encouraging as it lacks indicators of tangible results. We urge the government to prioritize effective governance and ensure that political considerations do not hinder the progress of the country given the present state of the nation and enormous expectations from the citizens. To this end, we call for the establishment of robust accountability mechanisms to ensure that ministers are held responsible for their actions and decisions. This will help foster transparency, prevent corruption and abuse of power and also build public trust in the government.
Declare your Assets Now as you hold public trust for the Nigerian people
In the same vein, we call on the newly appointed Ministerial to toe the path of honor, transparency and patriotism to declare their asset/worth publicly before the Nigerian people as this will deepen citizens’ trust and confidence in the service to the nation. Incidentally, this administration has continually harp on renewing the hope of the citizens, thus, there is no better way to implement this mantra than earning the trust of the people by making them believe you have nothing to hide during and after your stay in office. We also urge the State commissioners to follow suit as they assume office. Mr. president and State Governors should lead in this light by first, declaring their own asset aside the one submitted to the CCB, while their appointees will follow same. Once again, we reinstate our call on all the newly appointed ministers to demonstrate transparency, accountability and integrity by declaring their assets to Nigerians.
Pension benefits for former Governors appointed as cabinet minister including the President himself and his Vice.
Again, our CRiG,ng Tracker shows that out 45 appointed ministers of Mr. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 8 of them are former Governors and enjoys humongous State pension laws with so much benefits inclusive of the president himself and his vice His excellency Kashim Shettima and, at the same time wants to double earn in their present political office they occupied. These persons are former Governor Nyesom Wike of Federal Capital Terrirory (River state), Adegboyega Oyetola of Marine & Blue Economy ministry (Osun State), Dave Umahi of Ministry of Works (Ebonyi state), Bello Matawalle of State for Defence (Zamfara state), Ibrahim Geidam of Police Affairs ministry (Yobe state), Solomon Lalong of Labour & Employment ministry (Plateau state), Atiku Bagudu of Budget & National Planning (Kebbi nstate) and Mohammed Badaru of Defence ministry (Jigawa state) respectively.
Aside the fact there is a subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court that declared life pensions for ex-governors illegal. The “Public service law is very clear. Paragraph 2a of the code of conduct for public officers in the fifth schedule Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution is very clear that no public officer is allowed to do this.” It reads: “Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing paragraph, a public officer shall not receive or be paid the emoluments of any public office at the same time as he receives or is paid the emoluments of any other public office.”
We urge Mr. president and his vice who were both former Governors of Lagos and Borno states, to lead by example and publicly discontinue/stop the temptation of collecting double salaries as pension and as their current political office – this alone will stir his cabinet members to do same.
Don’t spend the 5bn palliative until you do the needful; SOAI caution State Governors
Our CRiG.ng Governance Tracker revealed that the federal government disbursed last week the sum of 5bn to states including FCT as palliative to cushion the effect of subsidy removal. While this may be seen as laudable action, we discredit the very manner, mode and process it was done. As it stands today, the national assembly has not enacted any law to back up the action. On the other hand, we call on the state governors and respective state houses of Assembly to as a matter of urgency enact a law to legalize the spending of this fund before disbursing to the people. In addition, the government at both federal and state must bring on board civil society organization in the set-up of the palliative committees for transparency and accountability checks. Anything done outside this, will lack legality in its entirety and will attract legal redress. To this end, we recommend for states to institute a law to back such palliative actions before making any/or further spendings.
Cut down cost of governance now; SOAI advise ministers.
Despite obvious hardship and dwindling economy, we are deeply concerned about the excessive cost of governance, particularly in relation to the public officeholders. The amount government pump into governance is a far cry when compared with the value proposition. More so, the benefits of public office holders is alarming and utterly ridiculous for a country with an economy such as ours with 71 million people living in extreme poverty today (World Poverty Clock, 2023) and a total of 133 million people classified as multidimensionally poor according to National Bureau of Statistics data. These includes but not limited to barrage of aides to ministers, fleet of cars/entourage, use of 1st class flights, Exter code and others.
We urge the government of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu to review, streamline and marshal out practical government template of cutting down cost of governance and, go ahead to implement it. This is even more needed presently than anytime else.
On minister of youth, we however appeal to the President to appoint a person who can better bring fresh perspectives, represent the interests, aspirations and understand the needs and challenges of the youth.
Remarkably, we shall use the following key performance indicators (KPI) as basis for our measurement and score card for governance. They are:
1) Cost of Governance (CoG),
2) Level of Impact (Loi)
3) Compliance to Rule of Law (CRL)
4) Transparency, Inclusivity and Accountability (TIA)
We hope that the government will take these concerns into serious consideration and work towards a more inclusive, accountable, and result-driven governance system.
