Four months after becoming Nigeria’s president, Mr Bola Tinubu has retained 10 presidential aircraft left by his predecessor, Mr Muhammadu Buhari, and kept 1,484 ministries, department, agencies (MDAs) and corporations that have stifled growth.

Though President Tinubu did not promise to sell some of the aircraft like his predecessor during his campaigns, the burden placed on Nigerians by his recent petrol subsidy removal behoves him to cut governance cost, notably by reducing wasteful presidential fleet which costs billions of naira to maintain.

Cost of maintaining presidential fleet jumped from N4.37bn in 2017 to N12.48bn in 2022, according to data obtained from the appropriation bills of the Federal Government, as reported by The Punch.

While N4.37 billion was allocated for the maintenance of the aircraft in 2017, the cost rose to N7.26bn in 2018 and further to N7.30bn in 2019. It reduced to N6.79 billion in 2020 but rose much higher to N12.55 billion in 2021. It slightly reduced to N12.48 billion in 2022.

“President Tinubu should show the people of Nigeria that he cares by cutting down the number of aircraft on the presidential fleet by half,” said a lecturer at a university in the United States, Dr Hamman Danbaba.

“How can you fly in 10 aircraft when the majority of your people cannot eat twice in 24 hours. This is wrong, so wrong,” he added.

He said cutting down the number of presidential aircraft would send signals that the president was serious with cutting governance costs. Bola Tinubu

Similarly, Nigeria has 943 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and 541 corporations operated with public funds, totalling 1,484. Most of these MDAs and corporations perform related functions, thereby accentuating the need to merge them.

The MDAs cost 75 percent of annual government expenditures, according to former Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze.

In 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, headed by Mr. Steve Oronsaye. One of the recommendations of the committee was to merge MDAs in order to cut governance costs. However, President Jonathan and his successors cast the document into the dustbin of history.

“Nigeria is badly affected by duplication of MDAs and political appointments. This should be addressed. It is important to note that fiscal sustainability is not just about revenues, but also about reduction in the cost of governance,” said Chief Executive Officer of Center for the Promotion of Private, Dr Muda Yusuf.

Tinubu’s administration has the highest number of ministerial appointees (48) since 1999. This shows that Tinubu is reluctant to reduce wastes in the government circles, say economists, who add that the president must lead by example by cutting costs for others at state and local government levels to emulate.

“President Tinubu needs to lead from the front,” said an economics lecturer, Dr Bethem Iriegbu. “If you look at the number of his ministers, you will not be convinced about that desire to reduce governance costs. I urge him to lead from the front so that other governors appointing 50 and 100 special advisers will desist from doing so,” she added.