States to Cut Cost of Governance

The 36 governors of states in Nigeria have vowed to cut down the cost of governance. This was made known at the press briefing. Briefing State House corespondents at the end of the NEC meeting,

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, who was flanked by the governors of Enugu, Plateau and Kebbi States, said NEC also directed states to reduce the cost of governance. He, however, did not give specifics on how that would be done.

He said: “We have just finished the 59th meeting economic council in which a lot of issues were deliberated upon. We resolved that all states should find ways to reduce their cost of governance.

“We do not have a uniform template on how to reduce the cost of governance but is very clear that states in the specific situations will find different ways and means of ensuring the cost of running governance is not as huge as it has always been.

“So, it is left for the states in their respective situation to find different ways of cutting cost but what is important is that we cannot continue with the kind of huge burden or huge cost we apply to run our government. A situation where you are having a huge percentage of your budget as recurrent expenditure is obviously not acceptable. And you must look for ways in reducing the cost of administration in the various states.”