The nuisance of Big Government will not go away very soon because the causes are embedded in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, with the equal opportunity charter placed smack within the First Chapter of the Constitution.
Section 14(3) provides: “The composition of the Government of the Federation… and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria… thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or… ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.”
Section 147(3) that puts a shot in the arm of the President states that “Any appointment (to the office of Minister) by the President shall be in conformity with the provisions of Section 14(3)… provided that… the President shall appoint at least one minister from each state, who shall be an indigene of such state.”
To the dismay and chagrin of those who do not approve of Big Government, this provision did not provide a cap to the number of ministers that the President can appoint from any of the states, including the Federal Capital Territory.
And, to ensure that no one loses sight of the constitutional provision for federal character, Paragraph 7 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Constitution provides for a Federal Character Commission with a board comprising one Chairman and one person representing each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
Paragraph 8 (1,b,c) provides that “In giving effect to the provision of Section 14(3) and (4) of the Constitution, the Commission shall have the power to – (b) promote, monitor and enforce compliance with the principles of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government; (c) take such legal measures, including the prosecution of the head or staff of any Ministry or government body or agency which fails to comply with any federal character principle or formula prescribed or adopted by the Commission.”
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If the Federal Character Commission has been empowered to enforce the provisions of equal opportunities, as enshrined in bold relief in the Constitution, there is no way to avoid a Big Federal Government in a country with 36 states, a Federal Capital Territory, 774 local governments and more than two hundred linguistic and cultural tendencies.
We can only imagine the personnel and financial resources that must be invested in the Federal Character Commission itself as it applies itself to the job of monitoring and enforcing the equal opportunity requirements on the ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government!
The financial implication of these constitutional provisions is in the high personnel emoluments bill of the unwieldy number of government employees. In the 2025 Budget Proposal that President Tinubu presented to the National Assembly, a total of N8.52 trillion will be spent on staff salaries and pension.
While as much as N8.52 trillion will be spent on personnel emoluments of government workers, a relatively meagre N3.18 trillion will be spent on capital projects that should last for a longer time and yield future incomes.
Media reports indicate that by November 2023, a total of N3.87 trillion was to be expended on workers’ salaries and pensions in the budgets of just 13, or one-third, of the states of Nigeria, although they admittedly planned to spend a higher sum of N5.845 trillion on capital projects.
The Federal Government’s proposal to spend N8.52 trillion on personnel emoluments in 2025 may have contributed to the N13.39 trillion budget deficit. The N16.33 trillion earmarked for debt servicing in the budget is an early warning sign that government must go easy on taking loans.
Therefore, there is urgent need to remove from the 1999 Nigerian Constitution the provisions that trap ginormous financial resources on Big Governments across the federation, leaving only a pittance for development.
