The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the February 25 presidential election, Adewole Adebayo, has urged President Bola Tinubu to look into the cost of governance and the value a minister brings into government.
Adebayo said Nigeria needs to cut down corruption to sail through its multifaceted challenges.
He said: “We have to look at the average cost of a minister and government and the value the minister brings into the government. Theoretically, it is good to cut down the cost of government. But in the case of Nigeria, what you need to cut down is corruption.
“Even if the country has 37 ministers, what would happen when they become contractors and siphon public funds? If you have National Assembly members establishing companies and going to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to pursue contracts, they are supervising and padding the budget.”
Commenting on what he called the over-bloated agencies and parastatals, Adebayo said: “That is what I called the establishment cost, which I have now upgraded to the establishment curse. It’s a mistake we make all the time.
“When they discover there is malaria in a particular river basin authority somewhere and they want to tackle that malaria, they create a Malaria Control Agency instead of creating a unit within that river basin authority to do that temporary project and move on. They create these offices and have an everlasting life.”