Everywhere, big government is now a liability

It was argued pointblank that because Nigeria collects ample revenue from God-given petroleum resources to which it invests nothing, it sustains bloated bodies like a cabinet of 43 Ministers whereas a prudent nation would not go for more than 20. What needs to be added is that the inevitable consequence of the tendency to have […]

It was argued pointblank that because Nigeria collects ample revenue from God-given petroleum resources to which it invests nothing, it sustains bloated bodies like a cabinet of 43 Ministers whereas a prudent nation would not go for more than 20. What needs to be added is that the inevitable consequence of the tendency to have a bloated body is that government becomes too bogus to function well. Many people may not have seen this correlation between obesity and lethargy, but in reality it was a feature of the news of the week-the deportation of Nigerians from South Africa. Why was our Ministry of Foreign Affairs caught napping?  Perhaps half of those who should have articulated the issues at stake were quite busy under-cutting one another to get into the good books of their three Ministers. Thus, while our officials were involuntarily pursuing cosmetic matters, South Africa was able to find the effrontery to deal with Nigeria as she did last week. In truth, if we had maintained the proactive momentum of the Murtala/Obasanjo era in our foreign relations, South Africa would never have dared us. It would be recalled that in the 70s, we had only one Minister of External Affairs-Joseph Garba- and he put Nigeria up there. It is thus instructive that Nigeria whose glorious foreign policy was pro-actively managed by one Minister in the past now has to employ three Ministers for the same job!

It is not uncharitable to argue that it is because there are too many ‘leading’ hands in the foreign affairs ministry that she now operates  a ‘wisdom after event’ strategy in which South Africa takes a position on a subject and leaves Nigeria to begin to leak her wounds while threatening just to reciprocate. No serious nation can present reciprocity as its own initiative when it is a principle inherent in foreign relations. The South African behaviour was obviously not a surprise; we saw it coming. Indeed, our foreign affairs ministry by its own admission was aware of the events which preceded the deportation of some Nigerians and yet waited for our nation to be humiliated before waking up from its slumber.  Anyway, thank God for South Africa, our foreign affairs ministry appears to be awake now having also deported some South Africans. But who else is working and how do we prevent him from returning to official indolence would depend on how well we can reshape our structure. Here, we insist that there is no better way of making our government responsive than to right-size it. Every other nation is busy doing just that by searching for an appropriate functional and cost effective framework of governance. As if Nigeria is aware of this and would not like to be left behind, it has now and again set up one panel or the other to restructure its public service. We have had that of Mbanefo 1959, Morgan 1963, Adebo 1971, Udoji 1972-4, Dotun Philips 1985, Ayida 1994, Joda 1999 and Danjuma 2010 to mention but a few. Inspite of all of these, Nigeria has not been able to follow international best practices in the management of governance.  All she does is to set up panels whose reports are never implemented hence the nation’s bureaucracy has remained bloated and unwieldy. In the face of global economic downturn, Nigeria has no option but to evolve ways of becoming prudent. First, it is time to streamline the structure of government by doing away with what we can avoid. Second, it is only a lean structure that can enable government effectively and efficiently manage her resources. Against this backdrop, it is obvious that with a Police Service Commission (PSC), the nation does not require a Ministry of Police Affairs. The nation will save costs if it drops the Ministry which duplicates the function of the PSC. Indeed, such a step would reduce the number of bodies which exist just to award contracts. Similarly, it is arguable if there is really a need for a Ministry of Petroleum. No one can point at the difference between now that we have a Petroleum Minister and several years back when there was none. The President can have an adviser on Petroleum matters without necessarily establishing a full fledged ministry for the purpose. The NNPC should be able to provide the workforce that is needed to manage the sector.

Also, there are certain functions which should not be assigned to a Ministry because of the nature of bureaucracy. One such assignment is anything that government is anxious to accomplish speedily.  Considering the deprivations of the Niger Delta people caused by oil-the nation’s main source of wealth, everyone agrees with the decision of government that developing the Niger Delta region is a priority. Interestingly, government ill-advisedly handed the assignment to a Ministry thereby subjecting the implementation of the policy to red-tapism. In earnest, if well focused and properly funded, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) would do a better job because it would not be bogged down like a ministry in the endless exchange of memos without a purpose. Oh yes, the Nigerian civil service has a long list of officials who have no specific duties and are thus engaged in the transmission of purposeless messages. Even if for the purpose of this piece, no reference is made to the performance of the civil service, its numerical strength alone calls for concern. At the highest level of permanent secretary, the figure is embarrassing. In the office of the head of the civil service alone, there are six permanent secretaries. There is one in charge of Common Services Office (CSO), another for Management Development Office (MDO) and yet another for Career Management Office (CMO). The other three Permanent Secretaries are in charge of Establishment and Records Office (ERO), Management Services Office (MSO) and the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR).  A similar long list of permanent secretaries is to be found in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).  This arrangement exists because ours is a profligate nation. We do not need more than one permanent secretary in each of the two offices in issue. There is therefore the need to drastically reduce the number and plough the savings made to other uses. In addition, there is the urgent need to appropriately target our ministries to meet their vision of ‘implementing Government’s policies and programmes for rapid and sustainable development’ otherwise, if they are asked to document their annual activities at the end of the year, many would use flowing language to record only what they had planned to do and not what was done. For such an unwieldy system, expansion does not arise because the world over, big governments are now obsolete and are seen as a liability.