Size Of Budget Allotted To Ministry Not Nigeria’s Major Problem – Moghalu

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu has revealed that the size of the budget allotted to ministries is not the major challenge facing governance in Nigeria.

Making this argument in a post via his official X handle on Friday, Moghalu argued that the real problem facing governance in the country is the nature of the budget and performance.

Naija News reports that his comment comes as the National Assembly continue to scrutinize the 2024 budget allocations of ministries, departments and agencies.

The former apex bank chief lamented that politics, not good governance was the focus of the average Nigerian politician.

Moghalu said, “The problem with governance in Nigeria isn’t so much the size of budgets allocated to ministries (although that also matters), but the real problems are the nature of the budget & performance with what is allocated. A budget of mainly recurrent expenditure can’t make real impact.

“Weak governance fueled by incompetence and corruption mean that even if large allocations are made, in many cases results don’t match resources allocated in the budget. This is largely because politics, not good governance, is often the guiding lodestar. In a democracy the purpose of politics is to deliver good governance, and the competition is about visions and policies. In our country, politics is an end in itself, and the people clap for the “best” politicians while they wallow in their misery created by bad governance. Sad.”