Sanusi, government and job creation

The recent call by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, for the sacking of 50 per cent of government workers is thoughtless, callous, and perfidious.  After he was criticised by Nigerians, and further upbraided by the Nigeria Labour Congress, Sanusi now claims he was quoted out of context. But the fact remains he was quoted verbatim. And the harm is done.  This is not the first time Sanusi has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Not long ago, he with his characteristic knack for phantasm suddenly dreamt of making N5, 000 the country’s highest denomination. It took President Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention to stop him in his tracks.

Seriously speaking, Sanusi’s excesses are getting too much. He may have voiced his personal opinion, but he must remember that his position is a sensitive one, and that he embarrasses President Jonathan and whatever his government stands for, whenever he makes unguarded statements, especially with regards to the president’s social contract with the people. The President should caution him, and thereafter, a permanent solution!

Am sure many Nigerian government workers must have had their blood pressure hitting the top on hearing Sanusi’s comment. And that is why it is soothing to know that the government through the Labour Minister, Chukwuemeka Wogu, has immediately spurned Sanusi’s statement, reassuring Nigerians that instead of sacking, government will even create more job opportunities.

The Labour Minister, in dispelling Sanusi’s statement, said, “Government owes the society an enabling environment to create job opportunities and the president’s desire is to create more jobs and not retrenchment.”

One of the things often said when it comes to jobs is that government does not create jobs, but only bring about the enabling environment for jobs to be created. Right? Wrong.  Government creates jobs, and many of them, too. You can find them in our teachers, firemen, police officers, soldiers, doctors, nurses, customs officers, immigration officers, prisons officers, judges, diplomats, legislators, governors. They are there in NAFDAC, NDLEA, NIMASA, NCC, NITDA, NTA, FRCN, NBC, JAMB, WAEC, NSITF, NIGCOMSAT, BPE, NCP, CAC, NIPC, NERC, PHCN, NNPC, DPR, SSS, NIA, FRSC, EFCC, ICPC, NUC, and NDDC.  I could go on, and on. So where do you start laying off from? Which will you leave, which will you keep? If you lay off 50 per cent of these as put forward by Sanusi, it will further worsen the employment problem in the country where an estimated 20.3 million Nigerians are jobless. Do you create something and then destroy it? If you throw out workers, what happens to their dependents? Sanusi should answer these questions. It is easier to destroy than to build.  Ah, and I left out CBN, (Sanusi’s constituency), perhaps, just the perfect place to start the lay-off, with Sanusi’s head going first.

In further evaluating the public sector, the total number of public sector workers at the federal, state, and local government level, is not up to four million, I stand to be corrected. Even at that, is that number too much that we would want to lay workers off?

Government jobs are very critical to education, health, and civil defence and many other areas the private organisations cannot be found. Government jobs also help boost the private sector because when those who are employed by government have money to spend on goods and services provided by the private sector it keeps the private sector stay in business, and helps boost the economy.

When government abdicates its responsibilities, it always finds a copout. The primary role of public sector workers is to provide service to all for the public good, and profit is certainly not its motive. It is through the public sector that the dividends of democracy can be provided, nothing more, nothing less.

Another thing often said is that the main role of the private sector is to create jobs. No entrepreneur starts a business with the sole aim of generating employment. Every business is set up to provide goods and services, and making profits thereof for the owners and investors. They just need workers to help achieve that. If they could make profit without workers they would go ahead. They would not mind using machines to do human jobs. If a manager or chief executive could make the same level of profit with fewer workers but instead chose to hire more workers, he would probably be shown the way out. His job is to keep labour costs as low as possible without affecting quality.

The public sector and the private sector should exist side by side as they both have their unique roles to play in the society. Government must also spend money to make sure certain jobs remain with it to keep them from being taken over by profit seekers who only serve the benefit of the owners and investors. Those against big government must also know that they may be inadvertently helping Sanusi beat his drum. Government should instead provide a level-playing field for all Nigerians. Nigeria is wealthy, and this wealth should be distributed. Nigeria as a country is overdue to have social security for its citizenry. Nigerians still expect even more from government. The Nigerian government workers still await the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage―and certainly not the threat of the sack.

Sanusi has a government job, and so do President Jonathan, the governors, and lawmakers; and they may still be looking forward to keep these jobs beyond 2015. Other Nigerians should be allowed to keep theirs.

•Dr. Odoemena, medical practitioner, wrote in from Ogba, Lagos via cuzdetriumph@yahoo.co.uk

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