Expenditure of the Federal Government of Nigeria: Effect on the Standard of Living of her Citizens

Abstract

Using the Autoregressive Distribute Lag (ARDL) and Granger Causality approach, we reexamined how the standard of living of the citizens are affected by the expenditure pattern of the Federal Government of Nigeria from 1981 to 2018. The outcome of the study based on data applied revealed that government expenditure has significant effect on the standard of living of her citizens. To our dismay, this is not the reality on ground as the level of poverty in country is high: the rich are getting richer, whereas the poor are getting poorer. There are deaths of basic infrastructures coupled with abandoned capital projects by past administrations. Those at the helm of affairs are interested in personal and political interest at the detriment of the welfare of the citizens. With the high volatility in inflation rate in the macro economy, we urge the government to increase salaries and wages of workers to cushion it devastative effect on purchasing power. There is overwhelming need for the government to continue channeling resources to the social sector within its life betterment programme such as pension, social securities, etc. to significantly reduce poverty to improve per capita income because reduction in poverty translate to higher per capita income thus better standard of living.