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.
But Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was also at the event, faulted Sanusi’s call for a purge of civil service.
Although the governor agreed that there
was the need to cut expenditure, he said, “If we must do that, then
we should provide alternatives where the sacked workers can become
economically viable.
“The reason why we are asking the
Federal Government to provide basic infrastructure and enabling
environment for private investors to invest is because they can employ
workers who will be disengaged from public sector.
“Therefore, I don’t agree with the CBN
governor that we should sack our workers to reduce the recurrent
expenditure in our budget without providing alternatives.”
