Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan on media and communications, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has warned the state governors to either reduce workers on their payroll or face the collapse of the economy.
In a statement he issued in Abuja today, Monday, Dr. Okupe blamed the dwindling financial resources of almost all the 36 states to what he called over-bloated civil service.
“Firstly, virtually all state governments in the country have over bloated civil service. At some point between 2008 and 2009, Ogun state received N2 billion monthly from the federation account and paid out N1.8b as staff salaries, wages and overhead costs!
“The total staff strength was about 50,000 while the population of the state was about 5,000,000.
“An obvious socio economic absurdity and incongruity therefore existed where 10 per cent of the population was consuming 90per cent of the wealth of the state.
“We do not need a soothsayer or an economic guru to foretell that this is unsustainable. In many States the percentage of the resources of the state that is consumed by the civil service ranges between 70 per cent to 80 per cent by not more than 10 per cent of its population.
“A basic economic dictum says ‘if expenditure cannot be controlled, then internal demands must be curtailed’.
“Without doubt, therefore, all state governments must immediately start the process of downsizing their workforce with reasonable cushions for those who will be affected.” [myad]
