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From: Hussaini Jibrin
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From: Hussaini Jibrin
THE GUARDIAN - EDITORIAL
Sanusi, civil service and governance cost
MONDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2012 00:00 EDITOR OPINION - EDITORIAL
THE recent outcry by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on the high cost of governance has further emphasised a problem that portends great danger for Nigeria.
However, the solution may be found more in drastically pruning the number and remuneration of public office holders than in sacking civil servants, as suggested by Sanusi.
Nevertheless, the CBN Governor's concern deserves serious attention.
At the Retreat of the Capital Market Committee in Warri, Delta State, Sanusi observed that over 70 per cent of the country's revenue was being expended on recurrent expenditure in the domestic economy, most especially the salaries and upkeep of public servants; while a marginal 30 per cent is left for the rest of the population and capital projects. He then called for the pruning of the country's workforce by 50 per cent as the economy could not be sustained by the huge outlay on salaries and entitlements of public servants.
The CBN governor also called for the scrapping of local councils.
While the calls for creation of more states is detestable on account of their lack of viability, the call to scrap local councils does not appear to have been thought through by its proponent and therefore amounts to a mental flip-flop which should be discountenanced. The rule of subsidiarity is fundamental to a federal system and the creation of local councils should be left to the prerogative of the federating states.
This is not the first time the CBN governor would canvass the point on the cost of governance. Sanusi, indeed merely gave vent to a worrisome situation and its impact on the nation's wellbeing, and his observation was an emphasis of a well-known fact.
His statement was, however, interpreted as meaning the downsizing of the lower and medium cadres of the country's civil service and, as a consequence, he incurred the wrath of organised labour and well-meaning Nigerians who questioned the rationale of his submission.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its counterpart, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) took exception to the position and accused the CBN governor of mission creep in dabbling into issues that border on human security which sacking of workers is. The NLC was alarmed at the burden that would come with such mass sack of civil servants given the deepening unemployment crisis in the country.
Similarly, the TUC emphasised that a civil servant earned less than a dollar a day while about 170 per cent of the country's budget was being spent on those in government. The congress, hitting the right note, holds that it is more pertinent to challenge the public office holders in the Executive branch and the National Assembly than the civil servants.
Meanwhile, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) accused Nigeria's labour leaders of hypocrisy for criticising the CBN Governor and noted that labour had the opportunity of advancing the workers' cause in the oil-subsidy protest but instead allegedly betrayed it. It rightfully noted that the fiscal indiscipline of the Jonathan administration was at the heart of the nation's malaise.
Of course, the only absolute truth in Sanusi's statement in terms of the over-bloated nature of the Nigerian bureaucracy. The point must be made that there is widespread poverty in the country and there is no system of social security while the government itself is the biggest drain on the nation's resources. The civil service happens to be the umbrella of employment in the public sector today. Surely, there is redundancy and over-centralisation in the civil service that needs to be corrected. Sanusi's suggestion however seems half of the solution. There is a need to consider the position of the average Nigerian.
Although the CBN governor has clarified his position to the effect that his advocacy was against the political public office holders. That is really the necleaus.
The core issue is that the cost of governance in Nigeria is overwhelming and must be drastically cut. The entitlements of senior public office-holders such as governors, president, legislators and, indeed, the Governor of the CBN himself, fat cats all, who upon retirement continue to constitute a drain on public coffers, should as a matter of importance be streamlined. It is a fact that the president, state governors and the elected officials parade a horde of aides that go by any name and draw salaries and sundry perquisites from government coffers. And our legislators are a band of locusts eating away at the soul of the nation on a job that ordinarily should be part-time. This pillaging should be checked through the formulation of guidelines that have the force of law.
It is disheartening that since the commencement of the prevailing republic, government has made several policy somersaults that have ridiculed attempts at streamlining public expenditure. The civil service reform led to the downsizing of civil servants who were paid retirement benefits and afterwards returned to the service by some contrivances. Equally, benefits of certain categories of public office holders were monetized. They were subsequently extended to the civil servants.
Indeed, between 2003 and 2005, public officers were allowed to purchase the houses in which they were quartered. Today, these policies are being blatantly reversed. New houses are being built for political office holders and government acquires new cars virtually every two years for its officials while huge outlay goes on estacodes on needless trips.
No nation can make any meaningful progress this way. Nigeria, with this style of governance, not only lives on borrowed money, the nation lives on borrowed time.
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