Cutting Down The Cost Of Governance -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

During festive periods, Nigerian public office holders that can still travel to their communities make the trips. For many of them it is often an opportunity to spend some time at home and to connect with their home communities.

These trips are usually made to much fanfare and always turn out to be fruitful to those who come out to greet them. There are usually gifts and greetings for all those who make it.
As insecurity has gripped the country, grinding down life as many knew it, these visits have become few and far between as Nigeria’s public office holders have learned to prioritize their safety.

A recent video of such a homecoming showed Olumode Adeyemi, the Director General of Nigeria’s Fire Service, visiting his hometown in Kogi State. The convoy, which contained assorted vehicles and motorbikes complete with his security personnel putting up a show, has provoked reaction from Nigerians.

His office has justified the long convoy by saying he was traveling together with other senior personnel of the Fire Service. But in a country where governance is outrageously expensive with so little value added to people’s lives, the justification has fallen embarrassingly flat.

Even before insecurity became such an existential threat to Nigerians, Nigerians were always quick to take issue with the extravagance of their public office holders, who prefer ostentatious expressions of wealth, all from public funds. Long convoys, meaningless foreign trips, and extortionate salaries and allowances enjoyed by do-nothing Nigerian politicians have always irked Nigerians to no end.

A culture of showing up for self-aggrandizement with public funds instead of meaningful projects took hold some time ago in Nigerian public life, and the country is paying the price for it in so many ways.

When public funds are diverted to vain personal projects, corruption blossoms and genuine public service surely takes a backseat.

As insecurity continues to bite hard, rather than take steps that will lead to greater security for Nigerians, public office holders are increasingly taking steps to protect themselves, forgetting the crucial lesson that lies in the fact that greater security for the public means enhanced security for each person.

Nigerians do not need long or longer convoys. Nigerians do not need any kind of competition done with their commonwealth. Modesty and prudence in public office are compulsory, especially in a country where poverty is the painful reality for millions of people.

Those who occupy public office in Nigeria must have the decency and dignity not to put their nauseating avarice in the faces of Nigerians.

Again, this raises the question of cutting down the cost of governance. What does a public officeholder need a long convoy for? If the roads are bad, if there is no security, whose responsibility is it to fix them? How much more expensive can governance get in a country where the government adds so little to the lives of citizens, many of whom live below the international poverty line?

Cutting down the cost of governance in Nigeria would translate into a host of tangible benefits for all Nigerians. It would reduce corruption; it would reduce the allure of public office for those who only ever think of lining their pockets, and crucially, it would lead to more funds being available for projects that would prove beneficial to all Nigerians.

As long as governance in Nigeria remains unjustifiably expensive, with public officers allowed to flaunt public wealth for private ends, governance in Nigeria will continue to stutter, leaving Nigerians in the muck.

Ike Willie-Nwobu is a Policy Practitioner and a social thinker and can be reached on Ikewilly9@gmail.com