Nigeria and Nigerians have been facing different seasons of life and so many character had surfaced on the pages of the script of our national melodrama.
Doyin Okupe, one of the aide of the Goodluck Jonathan urged state governors to downsize their workforce in view of the current cash crunch. Here are parts of the advise Doyin Okupe offered the state Governors;
“An immediate 20-30% cut down in staff strength is imperative, with provision of say, upfront payment of 3 years salaries for affected members of staff.”
According to him, all state governments in the country have over-bloated civil service.
He suggested that downsizing be continued in states at an annual rate of about 10 percent for about five years, saying this would create space for a controlled employment of “new youthful and better trained civil servants.”
My Take....
Doyin Okupe a man of yesterday who was only relevant yesterday but trying hard to come back into relevance now, made a bit of sense in his submission but to a large extent, Doyin suggestions and advice defile logic of the present day reality.
Firstly, let us start the discussion this way, Doyin Okupe was part of the last administration that almost wreck Nigeria, led Nigeria to the economic, social and political crisis that would have engulfed the country if not the intervention of God and the resolution of the progressive minds across the country, the story of our country would have been tragic and disastrous.
How come Doyin Okupe did not give his interesting advise to the government he served and the governors who they served together? Perhaps, if the downsizing advice had been given in the past and the needful is done, the issue of over bloated civil service will would not have surfaced by now.
One of the urgent things that needed to be done is to refine our civil and public services in this country. And also improve the formative mechanism, recruitment and operations.
Downsizing the workforce now will not provide a political and economic solutions but it will create unnecessary anarchy and tensions in the land that government itself will find it difficult to handle.
What do we do on the interim to solve some of the crisis at hand? Before government will think of downsizing or before we can find the advise of Okupe useful, let the Governors reduce the numbers of the aides, downsize the huge allowances they collected and redistribute it to a purposeful task and good governance. Governors must put on their thinking caps, look inward and become creative in proffering solutions to the impending problems.
It is total absurdity and aberration for a governor of any state and others states that are just glorified local government district to appoint 200, 500 and 700 advisers and assistants. For what purpose? These are part of what need to be downsize and not productive workforce. There are so many outdated and useless ministry, department and unit of government that we don't really need as a country and progressive society, such ministry, department and unit need to he scrapped.
One of the primary responsibility of government is to create an enabling environment for individuals, private and corporate organization and institutions to thrive and survive. If that is done, government does not need to employ everybody, because a productive society will produce a productive people and workforce who will end up to be the pride of the society and not a liability, as the case we are in now. We need to strived towards building a society where citizens become jobs, opportunities and wealths creators. When the larger percentage of a society are productive, effective and efficient, that society has moved away from economic, social and political tragedy. We don't need to reinvent the wheel but work toward building a purposeful society with populace who had a clue of the embedded potential, understand it, learn to release and ultimately work to maximize it.
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