He also told Vanguard that Tinubu needed to reduce the
number of ministers to 10 or 12.
He said: “What are you doing with 48 ministers? It is just too big. You don’t need all that.
I recommend a maximum of 12.
“So many ministries can be merged and others abolished. What is the Ministry of Information doing?
All the press secretaries in the Villa cover what the Minister of Information
does. Tell me, what does the Minister of Information do daily? Nothing!
“We also do not need Agriculture and Housing
ministries. My take is that the
government has no house and does not need a Minister of Housing.
“There should be a very clean sweep; you can bring it down
from 48 to about 10 to 12 ministers.
“We should abolish that section in the constitution that
says every state must produce a minister.
Subsidy removal
Recall that on May 29, 2023, President Tinubu declared that
subsidy was gone. He later described subsidy as an elephant that would bring
Nigeria to its knees.
According to Agbakoba: “Why should we in good heart and
sense, feed smugglers and be Father Christmas to neighbouring countries, even
though they say not every day is Christmas?
“The elephant that
was going to bring Nigeria to its knees is the subsidy. A country that cannot
pay salaries and we say we have the potential to encourage ourselves. I think
we did the right thing.”
We institutional
palliative — Agbakoba
Speaking on the subsidy removal, Agbakoba said: “The
principle of subsidy applies across the world.
Every government uses the proceeds to offer palliatives to the aged, the
poor and the unemployed.
“The problem with our own is the method of delivery.
“For instance, in the US, there is a social security
law. So, the palliative process is
institutionalised. It is not administrative.
“Even at that, there is a process of verification of people
who are entitled. I don’t see how it cannot be done here. We have a lot of identification tools like
BVN, NIN and others that can be used for people who are qualified for the
palliative.
“On the larger issue of subsidy, it is really not a bad
idea. France has just announced 45 billion euro to subsidise electricity.
“The budget of the United States is $5 trillion and half of
it goes into subsidising education, free health, and support for the aged. The
UK pays 200 billion pounds to support the national health system.”
‘Where’s the subsidy
money’
Continuing, he said: “On the point whether President Tinubu
was right to remove it, yes, he is right, to recreate the economy.
“But what hasn’t happened is the consequential follow-up,
which is a gap creating the hardship now.”
Also suggesting a way out, he added: “We need to pass, as a
matter of urgency, the social security act which will use existing data to
identify people who are entitled to get palliative.
“What we have is the administration, where the government
said it has set aside N100 billion for palliative but we don’t know where it is
going.
“Where is the money that has accrued from the subsidy
removal? How much has been paid as palliatives, and where is the money going
to?
“Those are the gaps I will want the government to
cover. If they do so, it is not going to
be difficult to persuade Nigerians that ‘yes, this is a very tough period that
we must go through to correct the economy’,” Agbakoba added.
