From Iniabasi Umo, Uyo
The Federal Government has been urged to reduce the cost of governance and allowances of political office holders.
Business Administration and Marketing expert, Professor Patrick Linus Akpan said the reduction would help ameliorate the burden of increasing poverty and high cost of living facing Nigerians.
Speaking at the weekend in Uyo as the 130th Inaugural Lecturer of the University of Uyo on the topic, “Disruptions and the Changing Face of Management in Nigeria: Ventilating a Suffocating Nation”, Prof Akpan said public expenditure management would help address some of the challenges currently suffocating Nigeria.
Akpan, a dual professor of Business Management, and Marketing, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Uyo, who said the expenditure profile of the Federal Government has been a major area of concern, noted that since 1999 recurrent spending has consistently been overshadowing capital expenditure.
He argued that the situation has worsened the poor state of Nigeria’s infrastructure and called on government to also reduce the number of Personal and Special Assistants to political office holders.
“Government should reduce the cost of governance and some allowances to some political office holders. Government should reduce the number of Personal and Special Assistants to some political office holders,” he said.
Prof. Akpan encouraged the Federal Government to focus on macroeconomic stability, security and internal stability, job creation, and redirect policies and programmes to the public service, and infrastructure investment to salvage economic hardship.
“There is a great need to increase non-oil revenue, manage inflation through coordinated monetary and fiscal policies and finalize foreign exchange reforms so as to reduce exchange rate instability.
“The key macroeconomic policy direction of the Government should be on: ensuring greater coordination and harmony between fiscal, trade and monetary policies; pursuit of a sound macroeconomic policy including fiscal prudence, supported appropriate monetary policy, to bring inflation to single digit.
“Entrench a culture of accountability by beginning to sanction and prosecute officers that breach established financial management rules and regulations;
“Strictly enforce the monetization policy; Align recurrent expenditure with non-oil revenue, while directing oil revenues to capital expenditure; Limit total recurrent spending as a percentage of total expenditure to not more than 65% by 2026; Adopt a whole-life approach to budgeting for assets, engage early in budget preparation processes and fast track the operationalization of the National Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSWF).”