Akinwunmi Ibrahim

is the 39th most corrupt nation among the 175 countries on the index today. Prosperity Index (PI) ranking just released put Nigeria on 125th position out of 142 countries worldwide based on its 2014 report.

The ranking represents a fall by 22 places among the countries under analysis and portrays a deteriorating living condition and declining living standards.

Over the years, analysts have raised serious concern that much of government expenditure go into over-bloated salaries and other emoluments for a legion of assistants and advisers attached to government, at the expense of capital projects in infrastructure, health, education and other sectors that can improve the quality of life in Africa’s largest economy.

And this cost associated with the running of government has increased considerably over the years and has significantly increased recurrent expenditure of governance, thereby decreasing the government expenditure on public project in vital sectors of the country’s economy.

This recurrent spending has been put to 85 per cent and the reversal implications are on infrastructure and investment. Alone, this year’s budget is N4.493 trillion compared to past years which government budget hardly reached this whopping figure and we can still feel development in spite having them at a slow pace.

When 85 per cent of the country’s wealth is been spent on public office holders, the 15 per cent lived on by its citizenry is neither suitable nor healthy in a democratic setting. And a litmus test for this incoming administration is to reduce cost of governance.

Unemployment is another sledge that has been troubling the country. Quoting figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Abuja last year, it was noted that no fewer than 5.3 million youths are jobless in the country, while 1.8 million graduates enter the labour market every year.

This figure is a conservative estimate of the actual number of unemployed youths in the country, going by previous statistics released by NBS, which put the number of jobless Nigerians at 20.3 million. The number of jobs available is less than graduate or non-graduate seekers.

Some lucky graduates that are in job are underpaid paid while non-graduates roam the streets. And even this writer is a victim of the strokes.

The health sector is another paradox. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) current ranking, the Nigerian healthcare system is put amongst the worst in the world. Specifically, the report places Nigeria at the 187th position of 190 countries. This is only ahead of the DRC, Central Africa Republic and Myanmar.

Even Zimbabwe and Burundi, which are amongst the poorest countries of the world, rank at least thirty places ahead of Nigeria, yet Nigeria has the largest Gross Domestic Product on the continent and many significant mineral resources that this countries do not have.

It was discovered that about USD 500 million is lost annually to medical tourism, though the Sovereign Wealth Fund estimates that the actual amount spent annually is at least double this for over USD1 billion. The Nigerian High Commissioner to India also revealed that 80 per cemt of the Indian visas granted to Nigerians were for the purpose of medical treatment. Since a majority of its population cannot afford to attend private clinics let alone go abroad for treatment. It is safe to infer that this amount is spent by a few wealthy people and the government, which pays for its high ranking officials to seek treatment abroad.

Another sector that needs urgent attention is education sector. In a recent survey by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Nigeria ranked last among 136 countries surveyed by the organisation, with reference to public spending on education as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product.

The survey found out that the country’s proportion of public spending on education as a percentage of the GDP was 0.89 per cent, while Nigeria’s education expenditure as a proportion of Gross National Income was also poor, 0.85 per cent, or 167th out of 168 countries. By this development, the rich amongst us schooled their children abroad and the children of the poor are lavishing in this deplorable state of the sector with no hope of graduating with good grades.

Despite many reforms in this redundant sector, the same song keeps re-echoing as if change is difficult. Year upon year, unaccounted billions of naira are invested in this sector. In the 1960s, Nigeria was said to be generating the same quantity of electricity with South Africa, and Iran.

But over the years, these countries continued to embark on sustainable investment to add new generation capacities to their grids on yearly basis, while Nigeria’s electricity supply remained stagnant due to lack of investment.

Today, South Africa, for instance, generates over 40,000 megawatts of electricity, while Nigeria generates less than 5,000 megawatts.

With increasing demand for electricity supply periodically, and without corresponding increase in power generation. It is a total mess after huge spending on this sector that the country cannot fix for once, Power!

If our incoming President can tackle these, others would fix themselves without much ado. And his regime’s name will be in good side of history and engraved in gold.