What's going on with the monetisation policy?

The aim of the initiative was that office holders and some categories of civil servants have their housing, transport, healthcare and all other allowances paid to them monetarily. This is expected to improve efficiency in allocation of government resources.

Against this backdrop, government during the last administration tactically withdrew from the recurring burdens arising from the huge cost of maintaining the chains of official and domestic vehicles, housing and other related allowances that are associated with running government and the entire public sector.

Implementation of the monetisation scheme gave rise to the outright disposal of official quarters and vehicles attached to top level public office holders and civil servants, from which most of the affected officers directly benefited and are now taking full responsibility for the cost of these needs.

Unfortunately, there are insinuations building up in various quarters again, since the inception of the current administration that government is contemplating a reversal of the policy.

The secretary to the government of the Federation Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, has said that what is happening is not an wholesale reversal but a modification of the policy.

One of the arguments put forward by Kingibe is that some categories and level of government officials require official cars to enable them perform their duties well and in dignity. While we agree with this opinion, we hope slight modifications and changes is not an express road to a situation where different categories of officers now have their gatemen, maids, drivers paid for by the government, as was the case before monetisation policy. Modern governments need to be as slim and efficient as possible. A reversal of the policy will be contrary to this, more so in the Nigeria's case

While we may not be against revisiting policies that may have been taken in hush manners against public interest, we urge that caution be exercised in reversing policies to ensure the exercise is not exposed to public ridicule in the country's drive to emerge as an economic surprise by the year 2020.

Government should move steps further from this to the level of deploying kinetic economic and socio-political managers who can implement sharp-edged policies and strategies aimed at addressing the embarrassingly decrepit state of the country's infrastructure, especially in the areas of power, roads, health, education, water and transport.

Incidentally, government itself acknowledges that the country's abysmal infrastructure remains the greatest impediment to economic growth, with the confession by the president that we lag behind many comparable developing countries in terms of infrastructure development indicators.

Government also says it is clear the resources available to it remain inadequate to cope with these many challenges, even with the lush money gushing from record high oil prices.

This is enough reason why we suggest that government does everything possible to minimise further exposure to public sector expenses that could be ushered in by the eventual reversal of the monetisation policy.

While the policy may not remain irreversible, consideration needs to be given to the cost associated with its reversal to ensure it does not outweigh the benefits to the larger economy.

The president has given a clearly defined 7-point policy agenda and it is our strong position that envelopes be strategically allocated to distribute funds optimally within the framework of expenditure by the Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on the basis of delivering the kernel of this agenda and addressing the priority issues facing the nation.

Efforts must also be stepped up in addressing the expectations of the country's development, investment and trading partners, particularly in the areas of strengthening the rule of law, stemming the spate of insecurity of life and property, enforcing contracts, reducing the cost of doing business and making the environment more investment friendly.

This, we believe, would be a more rewarding path to tread.