Sanusi to FG: Sack 50% of civil servants

NOVEMBER 28, 2012 BY AGENCY REPORTER

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi
| credits:
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.

“How can we be using the proceeds from our major source of revenue to service recurrent expenditure, by paying salaries, allowances, etc. The country should be thinking of enhancing its productivity base rather than spending on things that cannot create wealth.”

Sanusi added that the country did not need over 100 senators, 400 members of the House of Representatives to make laws. He said when the expenses of lawmakers, civil servants and those in the executive arm of government are totalled, Nigerians will find out that their national revenue has been consumed by the Executive, lawmakers and civil servants.

He also faulted ‘wastage’ of funds on the maintenance of 774 Local Government Area chairmen, their aides, councillors and other appendages of the third tier of government.

“Do we need 774 LGAs? Do we need 36 states some of which are not viable? why not just remove them and have only state governments?,” he asked rhethorically.

According to him, “there are state governors whose monthly allocations are barely enough to pay salaries. I hear such governors complain and I say ‘why complain when the solution is simple?’ It is irresponsible to use all your money to pay salaries and wait for another month’s allocation and pay salaries and after four years, you would have done nothing.”

Sanusi also maintained that the Federal Government needed to totally remove petrol subsidy. He suggested that those who stole subsidy funds should be punished. He said, “People have the right to demand transparency. If you want to remove subsidy, you have to show what happened to those who stole.”

The CBN governor advised the Federal Government to stop investments on infrastructure that could be handed over to the private sector to run so that it (FG) can concentrate on building of schools, health centres and the provision of other social services.

http://www.punchng.com/news/sanusi-to-fg-sack-50-of-civil-servants/

Da brilliant slowpoke forgot he is also a civil servant,well if d fg can be sincere enuf to sack ol d top shot civil servants lyk sanusi,Okonjo,Anyim,some advisers nd senators ,etc den Nigeria wld be a beta place for d masses only if d cost on dis irrelevant pimps r used justly for our course. Gbam

Sanusi, never forget "nothing lasts forever"

Now, i have now known that sanusi is boko haram

Painful to say, but simple and true, the civil service is overbloated and not efficient in anyway.

Also 75% of political appointees should be removed.

Name of the movie: A curse on a green nation!

Sack Civil Servants?
...and 50 percent too?
What is Sanusi smoking??
Why not reduce the fat salaries and allowances of Legislooters, representathieves and top government officials who do almost nothing than sit around,talk trash and receive alerts at the end of the month?

That guy needs his head examined. When people think they know too much they become a problem not only to them self but also to the immediate environment they reside. God save this country from Sanusi and his kinds.

yes, d fg has to start frm sanisu nd al dos top men nt d common men dat ar recievn very little dat is nt evn enof to take care of there family.

Sanusi is a baskat ediota!

Most of this civil servant are just bench warmer and they are one of the cause of most of the delay in government project. They all just sit down and gossip in their office, after the end of the month they collect salaries for what let them be sack we no need them

how will they eat.

although its true the govt payroll is gigantic, but why not tighten hiring instead of sacking everybody there.

not sure, actually.

I don't think this Mallam is a Nigerian...though i wont blame him cos he doesn't know what Nigerians are going through at all.

wat he is sayin is mathematics which is logical bt practically,is it feasible?

I watched the program Live on AIT, SLS only said in order to increase Capital expenditure, the FG would need to sack about 50% of civil servant..and he also said the civil servant to be sacked shld be govt aides, SA, SSA and oda unneccesary office holders....e.g Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati, Reno, etc

You dey crazy!, quit you post first mind you i don't bother to read it.

He wants the highest employer of labour to sack when more than 70% of us are unemployed.The M.oron should just advise that we prune the Law makers and the Executive expenses.That way, we can conveniently pay to make our roads instead of concessions etc

Sack 50% of Ur cabinet.

True talk! But can we trust you?

abbeycial: Da brilliant slowpoke forgot he is also a civil servant,well if d fg can be sincere enuf to sack ol d top shot civil servants lyk sanusi,Okonjo,Anyim,some advisers nd senators ,etc den Nigeria wld be a beta place for d masses only if d cost on dis irrelevant pimps r used justly for our course. Gbam

You are point brother!!! I don't understand the kind of stu*ipid analysis of Sanusi. He has failed to mention that the huge cost that is used to maintain the said civil servants is not what is earned by the 18000 naira minimum wage earners(the civil servant proper) but what is used to maintain the executive civil servants(if I may borrow this) who reside in Aso rock and National assembly, who have Senior special advisers, special advisers and advisers, who drive upto 30 cars as escort, who fly first class or chartered plane, who stay at presidential suites in the best hotels everywhere they re all at fed govt ezpenses. Civil servants. I know of a civil servant in NNpc who because he was promoted to directorate level, had a call allowance of over one million per month with his wife, they too are civil servants. So its not poor 18k minimum wage earners whose total salary and allowances in a year at fed level is less than 60 billion . He shud talk about he real drain pipe in govt, the ministers and their aids, the senators and aids, wasn't it permanent sec in Aso rock that said that about 1.3 billion naira wouldn't be enough for feeding in one year?

He is in eFfect showing the kind of despot he would be as a president.
He is saying ' sack 50percent of ur workers, bring the money let's share'

Thank you sanusi,if d biggot could take to your advise maybe this will accelerate the revolution plans on ground...kudos sanusi

Ode,drug addict.

WHY KILL A MOSQUITO WITH A STEALTH JET BOMBER?

Now I clearly understand two(2) things about SLS.
1. He has a passion for creating uproar to draw attention to himself.
2. His strategic thinking is always geared towards policies/decisions that will put serious strain on the masses.

Examples:
1. Banking reform: To start with, the reform was needed bt the level of immaturity with which it was carried made ground for so much collateral damage. The level of job loss witnessed during this reform was unprecedented. Poeple were wrong to think only bankers were affected. A lot of manufacturing and service companies who had their operations stiffened also laid off staff as they could not assess loan for a long time for business operations. The job loss trend is still with us till today. Yet, mallam wants to up the stake.

2. Cashless lagos: if u are a lagos based businessman, u will understand what a pain in the ars_e this policy is. It can be so frustrating. People loose money and deals because of this prematurely introduced policy.

3. 5,000 naira notes and coinage of 20, 10, 5 naira: everyone in this country, except sls, is aware of how senseless and incompatible that was with our society. This was adequately reflected in the level of public outcry and eventual suspension of the policy by FG.

4. Support for subsidy Removal: this same policy was meant to achieve the similar purpose as this new proposal of sack in the civil service. Now, can anyone mention any significant impact that the subsidy reinvestment committee has had on nigerian economy and nigerians. The subsidy was saved to be stolen by Abuja Stealers. The same thing will happen with the savings if 50% of civil servants are sacked.

5. Mass sack of civil servant. Hmmmmm. Yes, savings wll be achieved bt the resulting surge in unemployment rate will be catastrophic. I am very sure that will kick-start the revolution some of us want.

Lessons
Sanusi does not care whether the masses starve to death or not. As long as he become Emir of Kano , shikena.....

Gej won't be that foolish to follow such suggestion anyway. Bt this is Naija, u never know.

We are saying unemployment is a problem yet sanusi dey talk rubbish. He shud be d one to go first

SLS is right. The only problem is he wasn't diplomatic about it like most Nigerian politicians.

Wait, am I missing something? Why the hell are you people attacking SLS?! That nigga can never be poor in his life even if you hire 1m more civil servants & make every 1st born a senator with commensurate salaries and allowances.

He has said the truth that all of us know. Most civil servants are a drain on the economy, lazy, incompetent and with a perverted sense of entitlement. SLS has spoken the truth. But before sacking, let them shoot half of the lawmakers and then seize their property. Political office is made too attractive, when people know that slight f(u)ck up will result in instant death, they won't want to run for office unless they are double sure they know what they are going there to do!

Now I know sanusi is a loony. Non of his policies favours the poor. Must we set the house on fire to kill the rat?

bory09: Most of this civil servant are just bench warmer and they are one of the cause of most of the delay in government project. They all just sit down and gossip in their office, after the end of the month they collect salaries for what let them be sack we no need them

precisely who are those civil servants,you mean the masses or govt aides?...if you really mean the 50perce of the masses shud be sacked,you need to be taken to psych home

Let us cost-benefit analyse Sacking 50%
-The civil service is bulky and so inefficient, so sacking would make sense, but 50%? (how did he arrive at that percentage?)
-Nigeria doesnt need a bogus, lazy, inefficient civil service to run its affairs, services should be out-sourced (public-private partnership)
(But)
-Sacking 50% would mean increase in the number of unemployment by a staggering 25%...an all time high in the history of any human scoiety
-Sacking 50% without a justifiable reason could warrant legal tussle...the last thing the fed govt wants right now
-Sacking 50% would definitely increase scoial vices in the community - unless you have an alternative jobs for the sacked 50%
-There is no guarantee that the freed up capital would be judiciously used (point of reference, the subsidy money)
(Alternatives)
-Reduce the number of civil servants but not by 50% (dat's too wayward)...remove the ghosts workers and the extremely underperforming ones.
-Rather than reducing the civil service by 50%, reduce their salaries (by 50%) and allowances (by 75%) especially the legislative, executive n judiciary guys.