A former presidential spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to cut the cost of governance by reducing the number of ministers in his cabinet, amid current economic hardship in the country.
Adeniyi gave the charge in Abuja at the Nigeria Accountability Summit, organised by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), MacArthur Foundation and other partners, noting that 48 ministers in the president’s cabinet at a time when most Nigerians could barely feed is too much.
He said for the federal government to be accountable, there must be effective oversight at every level of government to check public policy and implementation.
“When we talk about how accountability defines the public conduct in Nigeria, the situation is worse at the sub-national levels. In most of the 36 states, the governors behave like demigods with the speakers of the National Assembly behave like errand boys or errand girls who serve and be removed at their pleasure.
“There is also a burden on the people to constantly bridge their gap, by emphasising their rights as people and to organise civic activities.
“There must be accountability from various levels of governance and the society at large,” he said.
Executive Director of PLSI, Olusegun Elemo said “the clock is ticking on us as a nation; hence we need to continuously and effectively address the derails of problems in our society.”
A deputy director at the MacArthur Foundation, Dr Amina Salihu, said “We seek to share with our partners that we need each other. It is not just the large number of people that drive change but the quality of commitments of the people that come together, because we have Nigerians that drive the change that we hope to see. That is why this kind of conference matters.”