Skip to main content

Tesla's Annual Sales Exceed Nigeria's Budget - Muhammad Sanusi

Tesla's Annual Sales Exceed Nigeria's Budget - Muhammad Sanusi


The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Kano State former Emir, Muhammad Sanusi II; said Nigeria and Nigerians need to reexamine the cost of running the country.

Sanusi has been a supporter of restructuring the country, as he has always held the view that the cost of governance in Nigeria is exceedingly high.

During a recent webinar, Sanusi noted the need to cut down the cost of governance, urging the government to "cut our coat according to our cloth."

He said, “The greater Atlanta (in the United States) has a Gross Domestic Product that is higher than that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Atlanta is not the richest city in the United States.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but the annual sales of Tesla exceeds the budget size of our country, so should we not begin to cut our coat according to our cloth; should we not begin to look at all these costs and the constitution itself; maybe turn the legislators to part-time lawmakers, have a unicameral legislature instead of bicameral, have the local governments run by employees of the Ministry of Local Government Affairs? We just need to think out of the box to reduce structural cost and make government sustainable over the long term.”

To which the vice president said, “There is no question that we are dealing with large and expensive government, but as you know, given the current constitutional structure, those who would have to vote to reduce (the size of) government, especially to become part-time legislators, are the very legislators themselves. So, you can imagine that we may not get very much traction if they are asked to vote themselves, as it were, out of their current relatively decent circumstances.

“So, I think there is a need for a national debate on this question and there is a need for us to ensure that we are not wasting the kind of resources that we ought to use for development on overheads. At the moment, our overheads are almost 70 per cent of revenues, so there is no question at all that we must reduce the size of government.

“Part of what you would see in the Economic Sustainability Plan also and several of the other initiatives is trying to go, to some extent, to what was recommended in the (Steve) Oransaye Report, to collapse a few of the agencies to become a bit more efficient and make government much more efficient with whatever it has.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

N-Power: FG extends Batch C enrolment Aug 8

FG extends Batch C N-Power enrollment to August 8 Add caption The Federal Government says the enrolment for Batch C scheme of the N-Power Programme which started on June 26 will now close on August 8. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, who disclosed this via  Twitter on Sunday night, said over 5 million applications have been received for the scheme. The Federal Government plans to enrol 400,000 applicants in the Batch C scheme. Batches A and B of the programme who are about to exit the programme held a rally at the National Assembly Complex last week, requesting FG to employ them as well as pay them a grant of N600,000 each. Providing an update on the development, the minister said on Sunday, “I received the news of a protest at the National Assembly by N-Power Batch A and B beneficiaries who presented a list of demands which we are reviewing and will address as practically possible. “Let me reiterate that th...

FG SURVIVAL FUND TO COMMENCE REGISTRATION FEBRUARY 9TH

MSMEs SURVIVAL FUND TO COMMENCE REGISTRATION FOR GUARANTEED OFF-TAKE STIMULUS SCHEME & GENERAL MSME GRANT     100,000 Nigerians to benefit from one-off N50,000 MSME grant  The chairman of the Steering Committee of the MSMEs Survival Fund and guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme and Honourable Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Amb. Mariam Y. Katagum, has announced the commencement of the Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme and the MSME Grant portal opening from February, 9th, 2021.  The Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme according to Amb. Katagum is aimed at protecting and sustaining the incomes of vulnerable Micro and Small Enterprises by guaranteeing the offtake of their products.   According to her, a total of 100,000 Micro and Small Enterprises are to benefit from the scheme.   The total target national number of beneficiaries is 100,000. The breakdown is as follows: Lagos, 3,880; Kano, 3,280; Abia, 3,080; while t...

PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES MADAGASCAN COVID-19 HERBAL “DRUG” FROM GUINEA BISSAU’S PRESIDENT EMBALO

PRESIDENT BUHARI RECEIVES MADAGASCAN COVID-19 HERBAL “DRUG” FROM GUINEA BISSAU’S PRESIDENT EMBALO President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday at the State House, Abuja, received the Madagascan native formulation against the Covid-19 pandemic, and reiterated that he will listen to science before allowing traditional or any new medicines to be administered on Nigerians. At an audience meeting with President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau who brought along with him the samples of the traditional medicine as shared to African nations by Madagascar, President Buhari said his position on all such herbal or traditional medicinal postulates had remained the same. “We have our institutions, systems and processes in the country. Any such formulations should be sent to them for verification. I will not put it to use without the endorsement of our institutions,” said the Nigerian President. On the main reason for his visit, President Embalo said having stabilized his country after the tus...