70 Percent Of Nigeria’s Budget Spent On Few Elites – Senator Ndume

Senator Ali Ndume, the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District, has claimed that 70 per cent of the country’s budget is spent on a minority of elites to the detriment of workers struggling to earn decent salaries.
Ndume, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, said this in reaction to comments recently made by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo regarding the cost of governance in Nigeria.
Osinbajo had in response to a question raised by Muhammadu Sanusi II, the former emir of Kano, on the governance structure during a webinar on Friday admitted that the country is “dealing with  (a) large and expensive government”.
Ndume, a former Senate Leader in the eighth assembly, stated that the positions of the vice president and Central Bank of Nigeria governor had justified his recent comments, in which he said the country’s high cost of running a presidential democracy is no longer feasible.
The federal lawmaker lamented that workers across the country are not well paid, while federal lawmakers, including himself, are earning “luxury wages”.
He said: “We have a budget of N10tn and only 30 per cent is going to the majority, whereas 70 per cent will be spent on a few minority. The system we are practising now is not fair either morally or socially.
“In the current system, workers are not being paid living wages, whereas a privileged few are earning luxury wages. The National Assembly members, including me, for instance, are paid luxury wages.
“How can we live comfortably when only a few of us are living a life of luxury while the majority are living in abject poverty? The N30,000 minimum wage is too small; it can make workers engage in corruption in order to survive.”
Ndume admitted that his recommendation of a change of governance style from presidential to a parliamentary system of government may be difficult to achieve as the current system also favours the lawmakers.
“Parliamentary system is effective in the sense that the head of government is more or less one among equals of the parliamentarians.
“Therefore, accountability is achieved in the chamber in the sense that the prime minister has to be in the parliament every day, and he must give account of government to his colleagues.
“Also, ministers are selected among the elected parliamentarians. The idea is to reduce the cost of governance and make it more effective.”
On how to effect a change in the current system of government, Ndume suggested that legal luminaries should come together and fashion out an acceptable arrangement that could lead to a constitutional amendment through a referendum.