Sanusi, President of CBN
There I was perusing the World Wide Web as usual when I stumbled upon this latest gaff by CBN President, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. He said, “You have to fire half of the civil service because the revenue of the government is supposed to be for 167 million Nigerians. Any society where government spends 70 per cent of its revenue on its civil service has a problem. It is unsustainable.”
See, I want to get where he’s coming from, and I want to believe that what he was really trying to say is that certain civil service workers and certain civil service duties are not needed, and are therefore a waste of the nation’s money. But I don’t know for sure that this is what he meant.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate as of January of this year was almost 25%. Twenty-five flipping percent! That means a quarter of the nation is unemployed. What kind of progress can we make when a quarter of us have no income? But the statistics is even much worse for the youth. 56% of the Nigerian youth is unemployed; 9% is underemployed, and only 35% is employed.
Considering all this, we have a man – the President of Central Bank Nigeria – going around and suggesting that 50% of the civil servants should be fired. And does he really think that Nigeria’s problem is those civil servants he wants to fire? Is he aware – of course, he has to be – about how much the public officials are stealing everyday? Should we talk about the fact that we import everything? Or that we produce gas but barely have it? Or that our teachers and policemen barely get paid? Or that our education is piss poor? Or that there is absolutely no law and order in Nigeria? Where do we start?
May we start by firing you first, Sir?
I think he said it because almost 20%-30% of our civil servants are possibly ghost workers, and also the fact that we have more LGs and ministries than we need and as a country we spend over 70% of our revenue on recurrent expenditure to maintain a system that does not add any form of value but are a money sharing institute. It’s not about unemployment; rather a decayed system that we continue to sustain at the detriment of our progress. In that case I would agree with Sanusi.
Really, I agree with everything you have said, and I think Sanusi just didn’t say what he was trying to say very well, and so his quote might have been taken outta context.
Why all the Sanusi hate though. Nothing wrong with what he said. Now, more than ever before, the govt needs to refocus its spending. Away from salaries and entitlements, and towards infrastructure and education. Things that actually create jobs. Govt paying people salary is probably the 2nd worst way to spend money and if you look at the budget, the bulk of govt spending goes to salaries civil servants and other political office holders. Needs to change.
Seriously? Are we forgetting the fact that even the remaining 30% that isn’t spent on recurrent expenditure and the so called salaries is stolen by this same government. They allocate this money for infrastructure and what do we see, money in Swiss accounts and no infrastructure. They should tackle corruption first starting with Goodluck, also have his cronies reduce their own entitlements, then we can consider giving them more money to work with. But as it stands, Sanusi should shut up and leave the civil servants alone.
Yeah I knew that was coming. CORRUPTION. AHHH!!!!!! They will steal the money anyway so we should remain at the status quo. Of course forgetting that the people who suffer if we continue down this road to nowhere are the everyday Nigerians, not the connected guys. Poverty and unemployment rising but who cares right. No need to change things because someone will steal the money anyway. Right? Or no wait, we should get read of corruption first. Hold on let me call T.B Joshua to see if he knows how. To be fair to SLS he also said the govt needs to cut its overhead too. In fact he has been saying that since…..
Haba, Nonso, no, now. I am no Economist, so I cannot really debate with you on this, but I think what Motunrayo is trying to say – and I agree with her – is that the entire nation needs to be scratched and started over. Okay, maybe that’s not what she’s saying.
Point is, the primary problem isn’t the ghost workers, or the fact that so much is spent paying the workers. Only the top people get that pay anyway. The little people like policemen, teachers, etc get scrap, and when a change is made right now, those are the people who will suffer – not the people who need to suffer.
Motunrayo, gbam!!! I’m with you.
Nonso b’anyi, I don’t really hate the man oh, but I honestly don’t think that salaries are what is eating Nigeria’s money. Yes, there are a lot of [real] people depending on the government for their checks, but the country isn’t exactly one that promotes independence/small businesses. And everyone knows that working for the government is the fastest and most assured way to eat a piece of the national cake.
Nonso O, true talk but what you are saying isnt what Sanusi said and if that is what he implied, he should have spoken clearly. This is the other problem i have with Naija politicians, they don’t weigh their words carefully nor reflect on what they say, they just talk regardless of how insensitive they may sound. That does not show respect in the least or concern for the people you govern!
Kay, true words. They really do not weigh their words. People just open their mouths and talk, not stopping to think about the implications of their words. They just talk.
Sorry y’all but I agree with Nonso & Sanus. Nigeria needs to cut down the size of government. If it has gotten to the point where the Nigerian government (apparently) appears to be the main money engine in the country as opposed to “private enterprise” then the country is on its way to complete FUBAR status.
70% of government income spent on civil servants is just ridiculous and stupid. Especially since I’m sure so much of that is the outrageous salaries for high ranking officials.
Can I just say Nigerians are an AMAZING set of ppl. In the US we have less than 8% unemployment and people are ready to hang the Congress. Yet, in Naija people are alright with three times that. I’ve always said part of the problem in Naija is that the govt has no fear of the people. Smh
EDJ, I agree with you. But see, here’s the thing. If they were to cut down the civil servants, who do you really think they would cut down? The little people (policemen, teachers, etc) or the top ranking officials?
1st, Vera its governor here in Nigeria not president.
2ndly, I agree with you. He is a misfit. Yes we need to reduce our recurrent expenditure but one way is to reduce the cost of running the executive government. Slash salaries of executive and state legislator and Nigeria will have billions more to spend. They all know the right thing to do but lack the will power to do right. @ Nonso, I hope you’ve seen 2013 budget?and billions allocated to tea and biscuits @ aso rock?? I want to contest 4 a sear in d fed house so I don’t have anything against politicians only let’s do the right thing