How i wish i could use the 'F' word when i saw this news. Anyway, i guess this man must be half drunk while saying this. please read.
Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Mallam
Sanusi Lamido on Tuesday lamented the high cost of servicing the
nation’s civil service and called on the Federal Government to fire at
least 50 per cent of its entire workforce.
Sanusi, in his presentation at the
Second Annual Capital Market Committee Retreat in Warri, Delta State,
said the country spends 70 per cent of its earnings on salaries and
entitlements of civil servants.
He argued that having the Federal
Government’s staff strength reduced by half would free up capital for
infrastructure development in the country and buoy the economy.
The CBN governor had in a lecture last
year claimed that 25 per cent of the overheads of the Federal Government
budget went to the National Assembly.
“Twenty five per cent of the overhead of
the Federal Government budget goes to National Assembly. I have figures
from the office of budget for the year 2010. Total government overhead
is N536, 268,49, 280. Total overhead of the National Assembly is
N136,259,768, 112 which is exactly 25.1 per cent of Federal Government
overhead. The overhead of the National Assembly as a percentage of the
Federal Government budget in 2009 was 19. 87 and in 2008 was 14.19”, he
had said.
Sanusi, at the retreat on Tuesday,
advocated a more compact and less expensive system of government that
would reduce overhead costs.
He said, “At the moment 70 per cent of
Federal Government’s revenue goes for payment of salaries and
entitlement of civil servants, leaving 30 per cent for development of
167 million Nigerians. That means that for every naira government earns,
70 kobo is consumed by civil servants.
“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.
“The various tiers of government should
cut down their recurrent expenditure and use the fund to provide basic
infrastructure like schools, hospital, etc.
NOW REACTION
But Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was also at the event, faulted Sanusi’s call for a purge of civil service
I want to tell the CBN governor to please think before he talk. When we are still lamenting over unemployment, this economist is advising FG to sack 50 percent of its workers. What do you think?