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Barely a week after the Presidential Advisory
Committee, headed by Theophilus Danjuma, submitted a report advising
the president – in a rare instance of ‘speaking truth to power’ – to
prune the federal bureaucracy, Mr. Jonathan announced the appointment
of new special advisers. This is the kind of irony one expects to
encounter in satirical novels about clownish African despots obsessed
with the perverse pleasure to be had from seeking counsel for the
express purpose of defying it.

Mr. Jonathan’s actions speak of a man who, being
as busy as we assume he is, has not had the time to read the Advisory
Committee’s report; or who has, for reasons best known to him,
willfully chosen to disregard it.

While we recognise that as president, the buck
stops on his table, and that it is his decision to take or reject any
advice offered him, this action of his raises questions about his
commitment to the prudent management of Nigeria’s resources. In spite
of his assurances to the contrary, all we keep seeing from Mr. Jonathan
is a more-of-the-same brand of leadership; an unwillingness to break
away from a debilitating status quo.

One of the legacies of the Yar’Adua government, in
which Mr. Jonathan faithfully served, for almost three years, as vice
president – was the consistent depletion of the Excess Crude Account,
set up by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo as a savings account of
sorts for oil windfalls accruing to Nigeria.

Even if the initial blame should go to Mr.
Yar’Adua, it is clear today that Mr. Jonathan deserves to share a chunk
of it. From Mr. Jonathan’s actions since becoming president almost a
year ago – regular unaccounted-for withdrawals from the account, the
most recent being $1bn in the days leading up to the PDP presidential
primary – mean his complicity in the questionable management of the
country’s oil wealth is evident.

Today, the ECA has dwindled to a few hundred
million dollars, from $20 billion in 2007. The question on the minds of
most observers is: where have the billions gone? Add to this the
several billion dollars in oil windfall earnings over the last few
years (last year alone – for much of which Mr. Jonathan was in power –
the Financial Times estimates the country earned $16bn). The Finance
Minister of course always has answers and excuses – oil production
expenditure, deficit financing, infrastructure projects, and so on –
most of which succeed only in raising fresh questions. For example, why
does Nigeria keep incurring ever-increasing levels of budget deficit?

Why are billions of dollars being sunk into power
plant projects that refuse to make a dent in the country’s dismal
electricity situation? Since Nigeria still continues to generate the
same amount of electricity as it did before the NIPP intervention
(indeed the same as in 1999, when Mr. Obasanjo first made a promise to
banish power failure within six months), we are forced to conclude that
Nigeria’s billions have simply gone into purchasing more darkness.

Mr. Jonathan has not shown any commitment or
concern for fiscal discipline. From his $150 million presidential jets,
to the lavish 50th independence anniversary celebrations, to his
ever-expanding cabinet, the picture that is emerging is not of a
president who is aware that national wealth is not limitless, and that
living and spending for the present without thought for the future is a
sure recipe for disaster. Include a rapacious National Assembly in the
picture, and the extent of the looming catastrophe becomes even clearer.

At a time when responsible governments around the
world are cutting down on spending, Nigeria’s government continues to
bask in its country’s status as an “oil-rich” nation in a world
addicted to oil, piling up debt and deficit without regard for the
future. In the 2011 budget, the State House is proposing to spend N21
billion, including more than N600 million ($4 million) on the purchase
of computers, scanners and photocopying machines alone, and another
N500 million on the purchase of “canteen / kitchen equipment.” These
are just two examples.

The fiscal recklessness is mind boggling, as are
the lame excuses constantly being issued by the government. We are
compelled to wonder if the government is seeing the same figures and
scenarios that everyone else is seeing.

It is time to put a stop to the foolishness. This
country is spending far more than it can afford to spend. To worsen it
we are spending on all the wrong things. Mr. Jonathan and his
bureaucrats should make an effort to read Atiku Abubakar’s letter to
him regarding the 2011 budget. What we want is not a spirited defence
but instead a reversal of course. The president should also read the
recommendations of the PAC – ten specific steps that include the need
to urgently cut the budget deficit and recurrent expenditure.

At this time, the last thing Nigeria needs is a
government more concerned about theoretical economic indices, the
reception of its international bond and the assessment of rating
agencies, than about the economic catastrophe that surely awaits if
Nigeria continues in the direction in which it is currently headed.