Barely
a few hours after the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi,
made his unpopular economic proposition at the just-concluded Annual
Capital Market Retreat held in Warri, Delta State, Nigerians were
befuddled and began their usual emotional dissection of issues often
proposed by the leaders. Sanusi argued that having the staff strength of
the federal, state and local governments reduced by half would serve as
a panacea for more infrastructural development in the country. But some
Nigerians rather left the real issues and substance for shadow-chasing
while hurling venoms at the CBN boss.
Just before we crucify Sanusi over his proposal, have we taken time to ask ourselves the following questions?
Why
on earth should our federal lawmakers, both in the Senate and House of
Representatives, alone be gulping up 25.1 per cent of our annual
budgetary allocations? What laws are 469 persons making and what
legislative functions are they carrying out to warrant such reckless
wages and salaries?
Why
should a local government chairman have more than two aides? Why should
a state governor harbour over 50 aides under his payroll while having
commissioners for each ministry?
What’s
the essence of duplicating SAs, SSAs and PAs all under the payroll of
the Federal Government? What are they assisting? Is the person in charge
a dummy that he can’t think at all?
Why
must an economy like Nigeria’s be spending 70 per cent of her annual
budget on recurrent expenditure (paying workers salaries) while having
just 30 per cent for infrastructural development and other capital
projects? How will such an economy raise shoulders among her political
and economic peers globally?
Did
Sanusi single out any region as where the majority of the workers
should be relieved? Sanusi is from the North (apparently the region with
the highest number of government employees). Did he shield them?
What
manner of “god” is the office of Nigeria’s Senate President that the
occupant should earn six times more than what President Barack Obama of
the United States takes home and three times more than what the British
Prime Minister earns? In a country where over 65 per cent of the
citizens wallow below the $1 benchmark.
Why
are we still retaining the fuel subsidy when abounding evidence have
shown that it is characterised by utter bewilderment and shrouded in
corruption while only a few are rapaciously binging on the “ghost funds”
known as subsidy?
Why must the Presidency spend so much on feeding alone while a majority of the people continue to wallow in abject poverty?
The
truth is Nigeria’s democracy is one of the most expensive democracies
in the world! We need to prune down cost of running government in
Nigeria lest we kill the economy and plunge ourselves into further
economic chaos in the nearest future. We must learn to think and plan
ahead even for generations unborn.
We
can make do with the House of Representatives alone while we retrench
the Senate which obviously is just a retirement ground for the elite.
Enough of the government wastage!
Sanusi’s
thesis on sacking 50 per cent of the workforce might not necessarily
have to be the civil servants. Something seriously needs to be done but
not sacking 50 per cent of government employees. That could be
disastrous.
However,
it smacks of crass preposterousness for a Senate President of a
developing nation and economy to be earning more than the President of a
developed nation. We can save the economy from collapsing by curtailing
some of this overpaid zealousness.
Politicians
and political appointees need to reduce the number of SAs, PAs and
other domestic staff as they are paid for by the government. The Steve
Orosanye Committee report (scrapping some agencies and merging
duplicating agencies) should also be implemented without further delay.
This will not be up to 50 per cent agitated for by Sanusi but will go a
long way to save more money for the Government which will hopefully be
utilised judiciously by the Federal Government.
More
so, if the government can create an enabling and conducive environment
for both foreign and private investors, the burden and high expectations
for them to create jobs and more jobs will be lessened; as there’s
practically nowhere in the world where the government is employing up to
50 per cent of her citizens.
While
trying to encourage investors, the government can adopt this formula
for taxation: the higher the number of employees under a company, the
lower the tax that company should pay. For instance, if Mr. A has an
investment of N3bn and Mr. B also has the same, Mr. A employs 100
Nigerians while Mr. B has 200 Nigerians under his payroll; then Mr. A
should pay a higher tax than Mr. B because of his capacity to employ
more people. This is one of the secrets to President Obama’s projection
of reducing unemployment from 8.9 per cent to 7.1 in the US.
Sanusi’s
proposition could be the way out actually, but the corruption in this
nation has eaten so deep into the fabric of the Nigerian system thereby
making it pragmatically difficult for even the 30 per cent left to be
effectively utilised.
The
Central Bank governor has spoken like an economist and the Presidency
has also responded with immediate alacrity at least to douse the fears
that might arise; with an affirmation that they are not going to lay-off
anybody. But like we all know, there’s a difference between the ideal
and the reality. Sanusi is proposing the ideal with a gloomy
prognostication at sight. But the reality is that our government can’t
dare it as it seems perhaps helpless.
If
we subscribe to Sanusi’s conceptual thesis, we could be saving the
government some cool cash annually, but we wouldn’t because the “boys”
don’t have alternatives at the moment. So, the charade continues!
•Chukwu is ex-editor-in-chief, Psychology Press Organisation, University of Ibadan. Xtianrooy@gmail.com 08025717782
Punch Nigeria
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