The CBN Governor's Outrageous Proposal

By Amina Kollere

The CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS), stirred trouble on 27 November 2012, in Warri when he proposed that in order to increase government revenue, 50% of the Nigerian civil servants should be sacked. He argues that with a huge reduction on overheads or less spending on recurrent expenditures, more funds would be freed and directed towards capital projects, so that significant spending on infrastructure can be guaranteed to lift the economy.

Sanusi said “You have to fire half of the civil service because the revenue government has is supposed to be for 167 million Nigerians. Any society where government spends 70% of its revenue on its civil service has a problem. It is unsustainable…The country does not need over 100 senators, about 400 members of the House of Representatives to make laws.”

The President of the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar, wondered if, to SLS, saving government funds was more important than saving lives. Omar added that, “The burden that will come with a mass sack of as high as 50% of civil servants, in addition to the already saturated unemployment market, can better be imagined.”

The NLC is clearly not happy with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. As expected, he has been called many foul names. Some have called for him to be sacked, and the more aggressive ones called for his head. Clearly, SLS has ruffled feathers, and he is facing the consequences.

Although, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is right when he says that spending about 70% of government revenue on the civil service is wrong, the solution he is proposing is outrageous and not viable. What he should have tackled is the unreasonable salary paid to senators in Nigeria. They are the most highly paid, but useless, public officers in the world. There are no legitimate laws and systems in Nigeria to show that they deserve the luxuries they are given. SLS should realize that sacking 50% of the civil servants will only increase unemployment and poverty rates, not to mention a rain of curses on SLS and his entire generation by the people of Nigeria.

It is highly irrational that with the top officials in Nigeria embezzling millions and fraternizing with the tax payer’s hard earned money, the innocent civil servants who suffer to earn a living should bear the brunt of the top officials’ failure to keep their greedy paws off the government revenue.

The 2011 budget includes N18 billion to service the presidential fleet. Does it make sense for the president to have 9 aircraft? Having one or two aircraft will not limit his itinerary, but extravagance is running high within the power-brokers in Nigeria. Imagine what N18 billion could do if invested in Agriculture or in the educational sector. All these are the issues Sanusi Lamido Sanusi should have identified, because they are the main problems, not civil servants.

The governor asked whether or not Nigeria needs its 36 states, as some of the states are in pitiful conditions. No doubt, the governor asks very good questions, but his answers are not well thought through. If the constitution were amended, and some of these states merged with more resourceful ones, has the governor thought about the chaos that could wreck? Should we keep merging until, well, when? No doubt the ethno-religious tension already paramount in Nigeria will be heightened as each group struggles for control. God knows we do not need any more fighting.

Instead of looking back at the things that cannot be changed without severe consequences, we should find a way to move forward despite. How about improving the agricultural sector in all states so that they can come up with part of their revenue instead of relying solely on the federal government? Or how about training our youth on how to be entrepreneurs so that they can be employers in their respective states? We need our leaders to be intelligent, outspoken, and even a little eccentric, which Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is, and that’s admirable. However, when talking about social issues, it shouldn’t just be about the profit to the federal government. It should be about the profit to the entire nation, and sacking 50% of civil servants is no profit.