Posted on: Mon 19-10-2015

The Kaduna state House of Assembly had in September, 2013 passed a “Pension and gratuity (governors and deputy governors) amendment bill”, the highlight of which was the barring of the state government from funding medical trips of former governors abroad. The move, according to the House, was to cut down on frivolous spending by the state government. It, however, said that only medical care in Nigerian hospitals should be funded for the former governors by the government. The lawmakers also cut the utility allowance of former governors from 30% of their basic allowances to 10%.

We at Peoples Daily are of the view that this is a step in the right direction and urge the state governor, Nasiru el-Rufai to support the implementation of the law. While many may not see this move by the Kaduna legislature as significant, we believe it is as it will go a long way in helping to reduce the huge excesses in government expenditure and in the process, help, hopefully, in diverting saved funds to more important areas that will positively impact the lives of the citizens. As the Nigerian Medical Association said sometime ago, the nation loses about $500 million annually to foreign medical trips by Nigerians. Therefore, any effort to reduce this capital flight is indeed a welcome development.

Nigerians have for years lamented the manner in which officials of federal and state governments have been wasting resources. This, without any doubt, has contributed to the poor state of infrastructure in the country. We are particularly alarmed by the decay in the health sector as a result of which government officials have now made it a habit to seek medical attention abroad at the slightest opportunity. With their heads firmly buried in the sand, these officials fail to see that their frequent overseas trips for medical care are an indictment and the clearest pointer to their failure to provide the basic services they were elected to provide for the people. The consequence of this failure is that ordinary Nigerians who can afford it also prefer to go to countries like Egypt and India rather than visit our hospitals here for medical care.

We urge other state governments and particularly the federal government to take serious steps to cut wasteful spending. The yawning gap between the rich and poor accentuated by grinding poverty has made it imperative for governments to consider a more equitable redistribution of our resources so that the majority of Nigerians who are at the lower rung of the economic ladder will be pulled up. The leadership of the National Assembly will do well to borrow a leaf from the book of the Kaduna legislators by ensuring a proper scrutiny of budgets and bills to curb wastages.

They can start this task by looking at their own allocations and benefits to find areas that need pruning. We recall that in the wake of the anti-subsidy removal protests of 2012, then President Goodluck Jonathan pledged to Nigerians that he would run a cost effective government with a promise to cut down on official entourages abroad. We are dismayed that the former president had only kept his promise in the breach. The number of ministers and aides who accompanied him on subsequent trips to China and Kenya confirmed this. The current government of President Muhammadu Buhari should address unnecessary medical trips by public office holders.

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