Merge MDAs to reduce costs of governance, Obasanjo tells governors

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned Nigerian governors to reduce cost of governance in their various domains by merging ineffective Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with viable ones as part of measures to be economically buoyant in the face of dwindling revenue.

While welcoming Babatunde Fowler, chairman, Joint Tax Board and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the 36 states’ chairmen of Revenue Boards to his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Tuesday, Obasanjo said governors should become “slimmer” by reducing wasteful spending.

Obasanjo, who had a closed-door session with the tax managers, said president and governors should not only reduce costs of governance, but must also show the citizenry what they had been doing with taxes and levies citizens and residents had been remitting to governments.

He said: “When times are hard, it is when the government need more internally generated revenue (IGR), and it is also the time that those from whom the government would want to generate funds are heard to be able to get money.

“What do we have to do? They must continue to try with increase as much as possible, what each state can generate in terms of IGR, but states must also embark on a number of things.

“One, reducing waste. Two, they have to look into becoming slimmer. Government can do a lot by looking at their own establishments. Where they have to bring together institutions that don’t need to continue to exist separately.

“And, generally, also show that the money they generate, the tax that the citizens pay are well utilised. And they can show that the tax the people that, look, you paid this, and it has been well utilised.

“I think these are some of the things we have to do to get us out of the tight situation that we are all in, and we pray that the tax will roll in sooner than later.”

Responding to Obasanjo’s comments on reduction of government’s spending and revenue generation, Fowler corroborated the former President on what government should do with revenue generated, adding that Nigerians should have impacts of government’s expenditure.

“One thing that he (Obassnjo) did say is that our main objective is to raise money for government. Government also has to make sure they eradicate waste.

“And, again an analogy that he said, he has said this 11 years ago in Lagos that tax tradition is like blood to the body. He also said that once we have funded that body with blood, the heart pumps it and the heart is the government.

“So, the government has to make sure it pumps it to all the sectors or areas of the body, meaning that those in charge of the government, once the revenue comes in, they should make sure the whole of Nigeria feels the impact of the expenditure,” Fowler urged Nigerian government.