It appears reason is finally prevailing in the polity as another governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, takes vital steps to cut the cost of governance in the state. This is coming at a time reasonable Nigerians have cause to wonder if we have leaders who see the red signs all around, particularly the implications of a ballooning cost of governance that obtains at every level of government.
There are causes of the situation we have now. There is corruption to which is linked lack of accountability and transparency where the management of government finances are concerned. There is generally impunity in the manner government business is conducted. There are the political officer holders who run the place as though it is their personal empire, recruiting for themselves thousands of political aides that they do not need. There is as well the uncontrolled recruitment into the civil service that basically doesn’t follow laid down procedures, merely increasing the cost of governance.
In the case of the last part, the outcome is a civil service that is bloated, a home for people who have nowhere else to go instead of those who have a passion for the job. The ease with which people can sneak into the civil service has encouraged fake certificate racketeering, and as such unqualified people occupy sensitive posts. Also, many more hands are recruited than is necessary. The system is so lax that it is shocking the kind of attitude found among these people who are public administrators. Many collect full-time salary but they are effectively traders or part-time workers at best. Many do not even report to the office where they collect salary and nothing is going on by the way of supervision. In the event, governments give public funds to people who aren’t adding value to the administration of public affairs. Their size is such that they are mere drains on the finances of the government that has too little funds left to engage in any meaningful development programmes.
One wonders the kind of leaders who would watch this continue at a time like this when lack of provision of opportunity has created the unenviable condition in which the nation now finds itself. Governments complain of lack of adequate funds. They have to get loans in order to get the basic of things done. They collect special funds from the FG in order to pay members of their civil service. The same civil service ensures that much of the internally generated revenue does not get into government treasury. Even as governments tries to reform the system and generate revenue, workers in government ministries and agencies sabotage it. Whoever has been to a government agency to conduct official business knows what workers there do. They create a backdoor channel through which funds that should go to the government go into their pockets. They collect salary yet they take a huge chunk of the IGR that should be for the government. Nigeria’s civil service has become a drain pipe, instead of a major contributor to the achievement of government policies that it is set up to be.
It is not likely that a leader worth its salt would permit this situation to continue. Efficient government that is responsive to the needs of the people cannot fold its hands and watch. But this is what many state governors are doing, giving the impression that all is fine when nothing is fine. At least we see the consequence in the heightened state of insecurity whereby citizens engage in criminality in the face of governments that have stopped providing opportunities for them to improve their lives and move up the economic ladder. One cannot understand the atmosphere of all-is-fine that majority of our elected politicians maintain. One would think there would be big reforms taking place across the states with regard to the cutting of the size and cost of governance. One would think the political elites would be reorganizing their nests in order to ensure they perform the functions expected of a government. But we are not seeing much of this. Instead, most state governors carry on, pleased to be praised as friends of labour when there is nothing friendly about maintaining a bloated civil service while failing to develop their states and their people.
In Kaduna State, there was the example of the government that has been taking a hard look at the causes of its lean finances. The civil service is checked and it is seen that many don’t have the certificates to be where they are. Many occupy seats that do not need to be set up in the first as they add no value to the business of public affairs. There was that case of teachers who did not even know what they ought to be teaching pupils. When the government of Kaduna State deals with all of that, many who do not see the danger of doing nothing cry foul. There is a crisis on our hands, and we need to do something now. But those who lack the presence of mind to see the danger cry that needed reforms being carried out in Kaduna State are anti-people. But we know what is anti-people. Anti-people is a government that won’t do something when 93 percent of the state’s revenue allocation from the FG is given to civil servants that it does not need. Anti-people is a government that gets praises from labour leaders and sycophants while it allows the future of its younger generation to be ruined by unqualified teachers in classrooms. Anti-people is failing to develop the infrastructure that any state needs in order to improve economic activities as well as attract investors. Anti-people is the state that does not engage in development activities, including human development activities. Anti-people is for government to continue to maintain on its payroll workers who do not add value to the conduct of public affairs. Anti is this and many more.
The last time the governor of Kaduna State rightsized the state’s civil service, people who are anti-people by their criticism of this needed measure shouted foul. Labour engaged in its usual rhetoric which was, as usual, deliberately out of sync with the good intentions of the government. As for other state governors who faced the same dire financial situation that the Kaduna State government faced, they were silent, conducting themselves as though they didn’t have the same problems on their hands.
Of late though, the Ekiti State governor stepped out of this anti-people connivance to do what would in the end be to the benefit of the people. Fayemi’s government announced the suspension of the Consequential Salary Adjustment (minimum wage) and a cut in the salaries of workers including that of political appointees. The minimum wage had been enjoyed by workers on grade levels 07 to 12 since January. This has now been partially suspended for a period of three months. The grant for the running of government office is also reduced.
Why did the Ekiti State governor take this step? The present economic crunch hitting the state. The same is hitting most of the states, but their governors carry on as though nothing is wrong. In the process, they lay the foundation of a troubled tomorrow for their people. While many of them choose to not take the hard decisions that Governors El-Rufai and Fayemi have had to take, they are borrowing funds from every source. These are loans which repayment the people will have to shoulder at one point or the other. Today’s problem is being postponed till tomorrow. A few things are basic. That there will still be a day of reckoning when people will face the problems they sidestep today is one. That hard decisions that are avoided today will still have to be taken eventually is another. With the manner insecurity that is linked to lack of opportunities for our people is raging, one can only hope that taking the hard decisions needed to turn things around for the better won’t come too late.
