The Federal Government is to spend over N5bn in the next four years maintaining the members of the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu, Leading reporters has learnt.
President Tinubu had set the record for the highest number of ministerial nominees in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic since 1999.
The 48 ministerial nominees appointed by Tinubu is six ministerial nominees more than the 42 appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
During his first term in office, Buhari had appointed 36 ministers. In his second term, he increased the list of ministers to 42.
Two weeks ago, Tinubu had nominated 28 people that were cleared by the senate to be ministers in his cabinet.
Last Wednesday, the president also sent another list of 19 other nominee, making a total of 47 cabinet members. Few days ago, he replaced the name of a ministerial nominee from Kano state with another nominee and added Festus Keyamo to the list to make it 48.
Recall that in 2011, Jonathan appointed 33 ministers into his cabinet with nine of them inherited from the administration of the late President Umar Yar Adua.
Before then, Yar Adua had in 2007, created a 39-member cabinet which is made up if 32 men and seven women.
During his tenure as Nigeria’s President, former President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed 42 ministers into his cabinet in 1999. However, he later did a review and reduced the number of ministers to 40.
An analysis indicate that on the implication of Tinubu’s decision to appoint 48 ministers and 20 Advisers showed that it will cost the Federal Government over N5bn to maintain them.
Based on the Remuneration Package for Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders obtained from the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, a minister’s monthly salary is fixed at N650,135.99. This translates into a total of N7.801,640 per annum.
A breakdown of this amount showed that the basic salary of a minister is pegged at N2,026,400 per annum, motor vehicle fueling N1,519,800, personal assistance N506,600, domestic staff N1,519,800, entertainment N911,880, utilities N607,920, monitoring N405,280 and newspapers N303,960.
The N7,801,640 annual salary for a minister does not include other allowances approved for them by the RMAFC.
These allowances are accommodation of N16.20m for four years, furniture N6.079m, severance gratuity N6.079m. leave allowance of N0.81m and motor vehicle allowance of N8.1m.
Speaking on the high governance cost, a developmental Economist, Afeez Balogun said there is need to reduce the members of the cabinet as this show that the government is willing to implementation the Stephen Oronsaye committee report.
He said, “There is need to reduce the size of the federal cabinet through amendment of the Constitution to ensure that federal ministers do not exceed 15 in number and also limit the number of assistants and advisers to the President to a reasonable number.”
He also urged the government to reduce the number of members on each of the governing boards or councils of all agencies, parastatals and commissions to not more than seven.
He said the membership and composition of boards and commissions should be based on merit and competence.