MORTGAGING THE FUTURE FOR RECURRENT BILLS.

What finance minister Mrs Kemi Adeosun reportedly said recently while pleading with her ministry workers to go back to work sure did not come as a surprise. The surprise is that government is behaving as if mortgaging the future to settle outstanding wages is a good policy.

It is not, even though it has turned out to be a major plank of the Buhari presidency, second perhaps only to the search for corrupt Nigerians in select cubicles.

Mrs Adeosun told her striking staff that their overtime pay could not be honoured because first, it was not budgeted for and more importantly, because the Federal government now borrows money to pay salaries.

Of course she should know and besides, the same government has been encouraging as many state governments as possible to do the same since the dawn of change.

First it was President Buharo himself who flagged it off with a unilateral presidential relief package to pay outstanding wages charged against or deductible from future allocations.

Then, with ministerial or executive council input, we now have the new bail package that allows the federal government to play the IMF to states, demanding some structural reforms and setting revenue generation targets.

Of course, borrowing to meet immediate working capital makes sense even for companies but it comes with a catch: It amounts to mortgage of the future to meet present bills and so stay afloat as a going concern.

The same applies to such public sector borrowings except that in this case, companies normally have production facilities in place and may be suffering only from temporarily weak demand.

Whereas in the case of a developing economy like Nigeria, every kobo earned at any time is contested for by recurrent expenses and capital expenditure. It is the capital portion that not only guarantees continued development but also ensures maintenance and upkeep of existing facilities.

Thus when government purse is as dry as it is now for all governments in Nigeria, the key response is not to encourage perception of the trend as temporary but as a wake up call to prioritise and target greater efficiency.

Unfortunately bail out funds, especially in Nigeria of today, instead encourages the opposite. Which is why, for example, the minister also asked the workers to wait until the economy improves then they will be paid allowances not budgeted for in 2016 budget released only a while ago.

That is also why, it makes sense for a government that is borrowing money to pay salaries, is coming up with free meals for pupils in primary schools, employing more police men, confronting and creating enemies for itself all over the land and playing the game of political favourites.

Of course, what will happen is that as soon as crude prices or earnings recover, we shall be back to playing the wealthy nation without a true economic; only cheap petro dollars which some monkeys suffer from  before being earned and baboons enjoy it in the name of majority carries the vote.

One is then forced to pray that God please let the hard times continue until all Nigerian governments and majority of Nigerians realise that the best way is to trim government work force ( including political appointees); encourage more innovation and more local production of the value added kind first to meet growing local demand and secondly for export. That may be unpatriotic but well, no apologies.