I received many texts from my write-up two weeks ago, which dealt with the vexed issue of pay disparity between public and civil servants. Mr Yusuf Liman (a well-informed reader of this column) corrected my error, by noting that public servants were those who work for government but deal directly with the members of the public in terms of service delivery e.g lecturers, doctors, while civil servants may not deal directly with the public. To that extent, he averred, NNPC workers are civil servants and not public servants and hence, the dichotomy between public and civil servants pay cannot be simply justified on the basis of parastatal vs ministry. The argument could be extended that every worker today deals with the public and service delivery is of paramount importance, therefore all government workers are the same… and should earn almost the same pay.
No matter what is responsible for this disparities – very huge ones at that – it ought to one day be rectified; or at least mitigated. Nigeria should study how it is done in other jurisdictions. It is never done where people with same qualifications, competence and experience will work for the same government and earn salaries which are 1,000% apart. It cannot be overemphasized that this is a serious anomaly and a disincentive to honesty and hard work. As I noted last week, the excuse for paying some of those ‘lucky’ government workers so much is that they will no longer be tempted with corruption once they earn big salaries. But empirical evidence points to the contrary.
The Minister of Finance recently dismissed those saying the low pay in the civil service may be responsible for some corruption and stealing. I’m afraid though that her argument reveals elitism. She shouldn’t forget the timeless saying, that when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Nobody is justifying stealing and corruption on the basis of low pay. But paying people nonsense amounts and aggressively dismissing their complaints, is not the way to go. All we want is some equity. I hope the new government will not run away from this difficult question.
Another excuse for paying huge salaries is the idea of bringing people from abroad with special packages. This started under President Obasanjo in recent times. Whereas it is great to bring in talents from abroad with their exposure, paying them salaries that are way beyond normalcy – and in US Dollars – creates a bigger problem for everybody. Many times these guys are not as competent as they claim to be in their CVs. At other times, they lack the emotional intelligence and leadership skills because they look down on those they meet here.
But there are other difficult issues Nigeria needs to engage with. It could be said that we are in a dysfunctional country today because we love to run away from the tough questions. Yet until we engage with those problems, encourage debate, and painstakingly dissect them, we shall only lurch from one trouble to another. Here are some of them.
1. What do we do with our resources? Many Nigerians believe what we need is ‘Federalism’. They want each state of the federation to manage its own resources and be independent of the Federal Government. Some want this to happen on a regional basis. The ethnic regions have basically emerged – at least in the south. When I checked for the meaning of Federalism, it says it is a system of government where power and resources are concentrated with the Federal Government. Statism is where the states have power. Maybe that is what we want. Already, a state like Akwa Ibom gets from the Federal Government ten times what any other average state gets. Just because it is next to the sea? Can we afford to create a country where some people live in total opulence while others – the majority – wallow in poverty? Do we know there is a global argument on inequality going on?
A study of Canada revealed that as a resource-rich country what they did was to determine a minimum standard of living for ALL CANADIANS. The poor Canadian states get a subvention – yearly or monthly – that brings them up to par with the minimum standard of living required. Believe it or not, the Federal Government of the United States of America still gives votes to states. It used to be block votes for specific projects but they recently gave state governors the right to spend the votes on whatever they considered to be priority. Over and above the need to make people work hard, is the need to ensure people are not dehumanized by poverty. It is an intricate balance that needs to be achieved.
2. This brings me to another of our difficult question. If we want to promote equality, what do we do about culture? Will we one day get every child in the far north of Nigeria to enjoy the same facilities as the children of Akwa Ibom State, so that they don’t grow too far apart? I must note here that it is a fallacy to believe that all children in Akwa Ibom State are having the times of their lives. Inequality still pervades the entire Nigerian landscape. But we should be worried at the trajectory our society is on. The Almajirai problem still rages up north. It could be argued that Goodluck Jonathan as a president tried to make a dent on the problem. I am waiting for Nigeria’s new president to make a statement on that issue. Also on the cattle-rearing problem. Let people know that such cultures are not sustainable and is a source of concern for every right-thinking person. In the north, the elite seem to ignore this problem while they expose their own children to the very best this world can offer. Keeping a vast majority of the citizens as serfs is not the way to plan.
If the states of the south of Nigeria would be convinced to give a little and allow others to have a better standard of living, then a national conversation must come up around the problem of Almajirai and other cultures that sub-optimises the potentials of the north. Recently one Hon Kazaure who represents somewhere in Jigawa State stood up to proclaim on the floor of the green chambers that he does not care about population explosion in Nigeria and he is praying to God for 50 children. How will a southerner or Christian – who has keyed into the idea of birth control for everyone’s good be happy hearing that? Kazaure said God will feed all the children and anyone can have as many children as they want. Does he know that this world has changed? It is worrisome that he represents a whole constituency.
I close by drawing attention to the incidence around General Dambazau, who allowed an SSS officer to clean his shoes at a public function. Our leaders need to learn a new culture, and remember that in this age of social media, what they never thought was a big deal may go global. This knowledge will allow them take more informed decisions. Really, youth also matters.
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