‘ Trust deficit, confidence issues aggravating Nigeria’s economic woes’
CASES of fiscal mismanagement leading to high levels of trust deficit and lack of confidence in public institutions have been identified as factors limiting Nigeria’s potential and aggravating its economic woes.
Economists believe that the inability of most Nigerians to identify an economic growth policy is hinged on the trust deficit and lack of confidence in policy makers over the years.
For instance, a critical look at the campaign promises since the 1979 elections reveals that the themes and promises are the same from achieving food sufficiency, constant electricity, building of roads, coupled with the provision of quality education and healthcare to tackling insecurity. Fighting corruption has not been truly addressed and eliminated from the list of developmental challenges.
According to stakeholders, Nigerians seem to have run out of patience in trusting their politicians and those who hold public office on their behalf. Many international organisations have blamed the spate of insecurity, banditry, kidnapping, farmers- herders clashes ravaging Nigeria on lack of synergy and trust deficit among the citizens.
Despite its abundant resources, Nigeria has maintained the infamous position as the poverty capital of the world, with the disclosure that 133 million citizens currently live below poverty line owing to lingering challenges of fiscal governance. This figure represents 63 per cent of its population living in poverty, according to a survey conducted by National
Bureau of Statis tics ( NBS), National Social Safety - Nets Coordinating Office ( NASSCO), United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund ( UNICEF) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative ( OPHI).
A new World Bank report on Nigeria’s Public Finance Management and Fiscal Issues unveiled on T uesday, stated categorically that the way forward for the nation’s lingering economic misfortune is to win the trust and confidence of the people by creating a governance structure that is all inclusive and people oriented.
At the presentation ceremony held in Abuja, the Country Director, World Bank for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri said: “Nigeria is currently facing huge developmental challenges, Nigeria has not been able to afford what the government needs to spend and meet those basic developmental needs. But really, Nigeria can not continue to spend more by just borrowing, with this, it becomes imperative that the fiscal resources that Nigeria has should be spent in a much better way.
“For instance, if you want to persuade various constituencies to contribute more to the fiscal resources by paying more tax and foregoing PMS subsidy, there must be some level of confidence that those funds could be used for the benefit of the public but the trust is not there now,” he said.