Premium Times column argues Nigeria must end spendthrift govt for private sector growth
Premium Times columnist Ifeanyi Uddin argues Nigeria cannot modernize its state while maintaining spendthrift governments that favor pharaonic projects like steel mills and refineries leading nowhere. He notes failed import substitution policies from left-wing circles that collapsed when implemented, urging a return to Babangida-era formulation where private sector—not government—drives economic growth.
The column highlights how disproportionately high recurrent spending in public expenditure acts as a tax on private enterprise, worsening infrastructure deficits from low capital investment and poor implementation. Uddin contends this large public sector hinders rather than helps manage the growing private sector, especially when bureaucracy fails to enforce anti-trust rules or prevent monopolistic practices.
He references the 2014 Oronsaye Committee report which advised rationalizing overlapping federal agencies to cut governance costs without creating new institutions—a test of Occam's Razor for state efficiency. Uddin links Nigeria's fiscal indiscipline to Cold War-era political ideologies where performance took a backseat to performative independence struggles, questioning whether today's bureaucracy truly serves consumer welfare or is compromised by state capture.
Given Nigeria's infrastructure deficit and bloated recurrent spending, should citizens demand privatization of loss-making state enterprises or insist on public sector reform as the priority for unlocking private-sector led growth?