High cost of governments has remained an issue with the blames located mainly in the billions spent in maintaining the 468-member National Assembly. The debates should be more extensively to include other areas of government wastes, at all levels.
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The two-year-old advice of the Presidential Advisory Council, PAC, for reduction in the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs to address the issue has been ignored. It probably cost the PAC its life.
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Ministries and agencies remain fertile soil for political patronage. As opportunities diminish in States and Local Governments, the federal pool is the only one with resources to accommodate an increasing number of unemployed politicians. More ministries and government agencies exit to meet demands for political appointments.
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Political expediency overrules economics. Ministers fight over their status and size of their ministries.
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The argument, leaning on constitutional provisions on equality of States, hammers on the absence of equity in subjugating one State to another by appointing junior ministers. The political solution lies in 36 federal ministries, each with sufficient resource base to appease politicians.
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More costs arise from the ease with which the National Assembly creates agencies. Little thought is given to financial implications of laws that expand bureaucracy. Each new commission or department of government adds to the cost of governance. However, these agencies hardly improve government services. They result in additional tension as government battles with appointments and political correctness in that direction.
It has to be curbed. It is very necessary. The pay is too high