Professor of political economy, Pat Utomi, has said he would significantly reduce the cost of governance if given the opportunity to lead Nigeria.
Utomi made the assertion during an interview on Sunday Politics, where he spoke on the state of the nation and the economic challenges facing Nigerians.
According to him, it was illogical for the government to operate extravagantly at a time when citizens were grappling with severe economic hardship.
Utomi said, “I will still dramatically slice the cost of governing in Nigeria; it is way too high. It does not make sense to run a government at the expense of the masses who are facing hardship.”
The political economist noted that beyond cutting costs, his priority would be to stimulate production through deliberate industrial policies.
“I would use industry policy to stimulate production. We’re not doing enough to stimulate production,” he said.
Utomi also clarified his stance on tax reforms, stressing that while such reforms were necessary, they must not become avenues for reckless spending.
“I’m not going to remove tax reforms. They are important. We need them, but I’m going to make sure that they are not revenues for people to spend,” he stated.
He further advocated constitutional reforms to regulate government expenditure and ensure fiscal discipline.
“We need to look at constitutional reforms that limit how you spend,” Utomi said, adding that revenues should be managed prudently to achieve a balanced budget.
“Those kinds of money you raise, we need a balanced budget. All of those are the issues we need to bring into consideration,” he added.