It is becoming clear to Nigerians that the Presidential democracy that the military bequeathed to the nation is far too expensive. That is why there is so much debt in the books of every state and that of the federal government. With a high cost of governance, the government, both at the national and state levels, spend most of their budget in paying salaries of workers.
Take the federal government for example; it spends at least 70 percent of its budget paying salaries of its workers and that of parliamentarians, leaving the rest of Nigerians to enjoy whatever it does in the name of infrastructure development for the people. I am sure that Nigerians did not bargain for this kind of governance when executive presidential democracy was foisted on them in the Second Republic and has stayed till today. The practice whereby government has to operate a big budget is a reason why Nigeria will go into deep foreign debt again and will have no option than to devalue its currency.
Now, the federal government is on the way to amassing huge foreign debt. The International Monetary Fund and local press are cautioning the government on the dangers inherent in what it is doing. Rather than listening and cautioning itself, its drummers are drumming and defending why it should not listen to the advice of those who will laugh at it at the end of the day. When that time comes, the IMF will say, “Did we not tell
you?”
Recall that the Domestic Debt Office (DMO) has put the nation’s total debt stock (federal government, FCT and states) at N22.38 trillion ($73.21 billion) as at June 30, 2018. Recall also that the external debt stock of the entire nation as at June 30, this year stood at $22 billion, with the Federal Government incurring as much as $17.8 billion dollars, while the states and the FCT owed $4.28 billion. In other words, the Federal Government alone accounts for 81 per cent of the country’s external debts while the states and the FCT are responsible for the rest 19 per cent.
As usual, Lagos State with a debt of $1.45 billion, retained its prime position as the state with the highest foreign debt in the country. Next is Edo State, which incurred $279 million. Others include Kaduna State with $232.9 million; Cross River State with $193.7 million; Bauchi State with $134.9 million and Enugu State with $127.9 million debt.
Other top debtors include Anambra State with $107.4 million; Oyo State with $106.34 million; Ogun State with $105.3 million; Osun State with $101.5 million and Abia State with $100.2 million. Others are Ekiti State with $97.9 million; Ondo State with $81.4 million; Rivers State with $79.5 million. Yet, other debtor states are Ebonyi State with $67.9 million; Kano State with $65 million; Katsina State with $64.7 million, and Delta State with 63.8 million foreign debt.
Yet, other debtor states are Kogi State with $32.37 million; Jigawa State with $32.80 million; FCT, $32.83 million; Zamfara State with $34.2 million; Benue State with $34.7 million and Gombe State with $38.5 million in foreign debt.
Other debtor states are Imo State with $61.2 million; Nasarawa State with $61.4 million; Adamawa State with $57.8 million; Niger State with $55.7 million and Bayelsa State with $57.2 million. The rest are Akwa Ibom State with $48.3 million; Kebbi State with $46.7 million; Kwara State with $49.8 million and Sokoto State with $40.2 million foreign debts. However, among the States with the lowest foreign debt portfolio are Taraba State with $22.1 million; Borno State with $22.2 million; Yobe State with $28.4 million, and Plateau State with $29.6 million foreign
debt.
Recall too that most of the states still owe their workers many months of salary arrears and allowances running into billions of Naira. When you put all these debts together, you will agree that the cost of governance in Nigeria is too high and something must be done to bring it
down.
Recall also that the Oronsanye report a few years ago recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out the existing 541 federal government agencies. Unfortunately, this recommendation has suffered from implementation paralysis, thus the over bloated cost of governance in Nigeria continues.
