I had briefly addressed this issue in the press a couple of years ago as NEPA/PHCN was being wound up. To mark May Day, a writer has (once again) brought up the disconnect between Labour Productivity, Emoluments and Career Advancement in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies. He dwelt with the typical call by Labour, especially in the runup to the annual May Day Celebration for pay parity between workers and managers in Government Parastatals and their counterparts in the private sector. It is clear that everyone works lackadaisically in one Parastatal or Agency while shamelessly expecting production surpluses from other sources to support his/her profligate pay scale and lifestyle.
Just a week ago I rescued an article written in 2014 by a now retired Permanent Secretary, Dr Tunji Olaopa who, as his 5th Birthday gift, sought to answer for his distinguished audience the question of whether or not the NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE IS (indeed) IRREFORMABLE. Dr Olaopa is a man of many words, but simple as I am, I was still able to deduce the one truth, one takeaway, that the Nigerian Labour Movement does not want to hear. The Civil Service is bloated, a dumping ground for those who would not otherwise fit into any demanding work environment, is highly permissive, dwells on ethnicity and nepotism and can hardly stick to even the watery rules that time and again it develops, in the name of reforms. Dr Olaopa should know. He was a brilliant career civil servant. From my reading of him on other matters, (including, you better believe this, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka and most shockingly my Prof Ayodele Awojobi), he has a firm grasp of facts and is not afraid to say his mind. I just wonder how he was able to navigate the treacherous waters of the Federal Civil Service till he retired a couple of years ago.
I now recall my analysis almost four years ago of how the Federal Government essentially sold all our Crown Jewels in order to pay unearned retirement to NEPA/PHCN staff who after four decades couldn't leave enough value in the company to settle even their own entitlements(?). No one till today has given a thought to the millions of poor shareholders, WE THE PEOPLE. It was like a case of selling valuable family land because an ofeke, a never-do-well, who could never hold down a job, wants to marry the most beautiful girl in the village. Crazy you would say. But that was exactly what we ended up doing.
Let me rehash the points I made then. A thousand workers with their complicit managers run (into the ground) an engineering operation with an asset base of say N100b. The annual turnover which for the sector, (I refer to the popular HBS Case Study - Ten Unidentified Industries), should be several multiples of the total assets, hovers (Nigerian style) around N60b. Meanwhile the wage bill is stuck at about N55b and together with inputs, maintenance and other expenses adds another N60b to the annual expenditure ie expenses. To save us from depression here, we shall not delve into the deliberate leakages, thievery and designed-in inability to keep Receivables and Bad Debts to a respectable minimum. This ensures that NEPA/PHCN could NEVER pay its bills for Natural Gas, Fuel Oil, Turbine components, lubricants, Transport & Logistics, etc, etc. Note that Cadbury, Guinness, Nestlé, Friesland-WAMCO, Dangote could never be run that way. They would fold up on, short order. . Forget capital expenditure for system expansion and upgrades. .
To send forth Ajaero and his friends, what did the government do? It raided the coffers of NNPC and collected such vast sums that weren't already stolen and PAID OFF NEPA/PHCN staff. Ask any Nnewi, Enugu-Agidi or Amichi business mogul if he had ever borrowed money from a competing neighbour or the Town Union in order to settle an errant and unproductive apprentice. Tufiakwa! That is never done. Please my people, find out. That was exactly what the government did and it was praised for it's financial wizardry. I recall that from the sidelines I had recommended that the shares of NEPA should be floated and each retired/sacked staff should be entitled to a pension and gratuity comprising a minimum of 60% NEPA shares. . How could we have been so daft?
I was not done. I had insinuated, (kind of prophesied), that at the rate we are going, the day that NNPC staff are to be settled, we may have to auction say ten major oil fields. Do not say that I didn’t warn us! That day (of reckoning) is coming. Where was I? Yes, we were discussing the ruinous impact of hare-brained labour/wage policies in Nigeria.
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