You Said The Poor Should Breathe, But Increased Cost Of Governance By Nominating 48 Ministers—Kola

GLatestAugust 4, 2023

1 minute read

Data and Political Analyst Kolawole Johnson has reinstated President Bola Tinubu’s phrase “let the poor breathe”, saying that the only way to ensure that the phrase is implemented is by reducing the size of the country’s political structure. This statement comes after the political analyst was asked to share his thoughts concerning the highly populated number of ministerial nominees submitted by the President to the Senate.

Recall that there is an ongoing argument and series of expressions of dissatisfaction by Nigerians against the 48 ministerial nominees of the president, owing to the fact that there has never been such a large cabinet in the history of Nigeria as that of the current administration.

According to Kolawole, the number of ministerial nominees should be reduced after all; the administration still has boards and government parastatals where there are chairmen, Director generals, and board members.

In his words, “the president said something, “Let the poor breathe,” and I think I gave a response that time, that one of the ways to ensure the poor breathe well is by ensuring that we reduce the size of government structure in the country.

Understandably, we’ve asked the people to sacrifice, but one of the things the people are saying is that the sacrifice should not be one-sided, and one of the ways we can ensure that is by ensuring that those in government, telling the poor to sacrifice should also make sure we see this sacrificing on the part of the government by ensuring that there’s a more compact government structure, not an elaborate one. After all, you’ll still have boards and parastatals that will have chairmen, DGs, board members, and so on. So the Usual waste in government should be checked.”