Outrage over N1.2trn pay for 18,000 govt officers

House of Representatives, Mr. Dino Melaye

Nigerians have reacted angrily to yet another revelation by a Presidential Committee on the Reform of the Public Service that 18,000 Nigerians who belong to top echelon of the service get N1.26trn in salaries and allowances annually.

The N1.26 trn constitutes 22.9 per cent of the 2013 budget which is N4.9 trn.

All the prominent Nigerians who spoke on the issue in separate interviews with SUNDAY PUNCH were of the view that no country with a genuine desire to develop, would spend such an amount of money on a small number of people in a country whose annual budget is N4.9 trn.

The respondents were further angered that recommendations on similar shocking revelations by committees set up by the President had been ignored by the Federal Government.

They also said the disclosure by the committee headed by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Adamu Fika, was a confirmation that cost of governance in the country is high.

Fika while presenting the committee’s report to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Ayim Pius Ayim, had said the figure emanated from the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission for the affected officers with effect from July 2007.

A former Governor of Edo State, Mr. John Odigie-Oyegun, said it was a shocking that N1.26 trn was being spent annually on the salaries and allowances of only 18,000 people in a country of over 160 million people.

Oyegun said he had given up on the rot in the nation’s polity as the recommendations of several committees set to probe the public service had not been implemented.

He said, “For this is absolutely astonishing. So many people including the Governor of the CBN and several groups have commented on the waste of public funds. This must be the fifth in the last few years.”

Also, a former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Festus Iyayi, said Nigerians were eager to see the step the President would take on the matter.

He said,   “Of course, no sane country in the world would create, let alone accept a situation where over N1tr is spent on so few public servants!

“Now that the President has raised the issue, he should tell us what his government will do about it including the outrageous salaries and allowances that National Assembly members carry home daily in wheel barrows.”

Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of Congress for Progressive Change, Rotimi Fashakin, said he was not surprised by the revelation.

He said Nigerians should hold the President responsible for this high cost of governance.

In the same vein, the Executive Secretary of Anti-Corruption Network and former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dino Melaye, said corruption looms everywhere in Nigeria.

He said, “The revelation is just a confirmation of our frequent cry that corruption in the MDAs is monumental.”

A former Secretary-General of TUC, Mr. John Kolawole, also said “It has opened our eyes that the core civil servants are not the ones causing the overhead; the salary we are receiving as civil servants is minimal compared to other countries.”

PUNCH