Afenifere Chief Economist, Segun Sanni, has expressed the need for the Nigerian government to cut costs, as he said that the country has indeed become insolvent.
Sanni, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, frowned at the “lavish” spending by the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government.
“The people of Nigeria would understand better if the government can come clean with us. Nigeria is indeed very broke. We need to cut costs,” Sanni said.
Pointing out the jumbo salaries of government officials among others, the economist stated that government’s extravagant expenditures are not reflective of the economic challenges in the country.
“We are spending lavishly, a government that is spending lavishly and living large cannot tell Nigerians that Nigeria is broke. We are indeed broke but our government is not using our resources on itself as if we are indeed broke.
“Spending 90 billion on hajj, 21 billion on a new vice president’s lodge, 40.6 billion in this year’s budget to renovate Aso Rock and the rest of it we hear. We hear all these scandalous figures being mentioned but how much of it is being spent on the people,” he queried.
‘NNPC most corrupt organisation in the world’
Sanni also condemned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for spending the country’s funds without proper accountability, adding that the audit released in 2023 cannot be trusted. I
“We have an NNPC, the most corrupt, opaque and inefficient organisation in the world. NNPC is more or less a sales man, we have an arrangement in place where NNPC collects our money after selling the oil and spends out of it the way it likes without any monitoring, oversight or supervision. Those expenses of NNPC that nobody has monitored are what Nigerians are being called on to bear, Sanni added.
Preferring solution to Nigeria’s economic problem, he called for a more judicious spending of the government’s resources where every government funds are properly accounted for.
“The government of the country should be in an austerity mode whereby every dollar or naira we make is judiciously spent. There has to be a more judicious spending of our money across all levels of government”, he said
