August 28, 2023

The Presidency says President Bola Tinubu is prepared to work closely with the National Assembly to bring down government expenditure.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday.

The spokesman said the President believes he can clean up federal expenditure and ensure the reduction of the cost of governance.

“The President is working hand in hand with the National Assembly to see how we can also bring down the level of expenditure within the National Assembly, both on the books and off the books.

“What I mean by off the books without being controversial is that we know that there has been a history of the National Assembly injecting a lot of projects within MDAs that may not be suited to the function and roles of those Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and the President is ready to do that,” he said.

The President’s aide also said increasing revenue is a top-line priority for the government but admitted it cannot be a swift solution.

“Increasing revenue is a top-line priority on his table, but it is not a one-strike solution. There are multiple elements to how he is going to do that – one of them is ensuring that we clean up federal expenditure in such a way that we don’t have the kinds of duplication that we have seen in the past when it comes to the expenditure in our ministries, departments, and agencies.

“The President has been very open about the fact that he is going to not only dust off the outside reports but that he is going to be the President that implements them. He has been clear about that,” Ajuri said.

His comment re-echoed that of the President who on Sunday stated that the country cannot continue servicing debts with about 90 percent of its revenue.

“Can we continue to service external debt with over 90 per cent of our revenue? It is a path to destruction, we cannot continue that. We have to make hard decisions. Poverty is not a shameful thing, but it is not acceptable. We must banish it,” Tinubu said at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) annual conference in Abuja.

To improve the status of the nation, Tinubu said his administration will make challenging adjustments, adding that even though initial reforms may be painful, Nigeria must be willing to take the hard steps to set the country on the path of growth.