El-Rufai tells FG to reduce workforce

A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on Tuesday in Abuja called for a reduction in the nation’s civil service, saying it was bloated.

He wondered why the wage bill of the civil service rose from N600m to over N1bn in less than five years after his administration left the office.

He, therefore, called for a reduction in the workforce but with good exit benefits.

He spoke at an annual roundtable organised by the Governance and Sustainable Development Initiative, with the theme, “Integrity in Public Service.”

He described as “irresponsible and selfish” the decision by the Federal Government to spend more on the civil service rather than build infrastructure for the benefit of the citizens.

He said, “In my opinion, number one, we need to reduce the number of people that work in government, we need to improve the quality and then we need to pay them very well. People should make choices that working for the government is not only prestigious but you can buy your fridge and do so legitimately.

“We should pay our civil servants well, the current level of pay should be four to five times what it is now, and we cannot pay that if we have the current number, which all of you know half of them are not doing any work.

“So, let us set down and do an audit and say this is what we need and get rid of the rest, give them a nice pay off to go into the private sector.

“We have a public service which is unsure of its role; the public service is still searching for its soul. We have a civil service that refused to let go in certain privileges. The appointment of permanent secretaries is no longer on merit but on political consideration.”

El-Rufai, however, suggested the restoration of the system, by coming up with a strong public service in whatever circumstances.

According to him, the government must define federal character only at the point of entering the public service, while promotion should be based on performance.

The ex-minister said, “We need to ensure that the practice in the civil service conforms to the constitution; permanent secretaries are not carriers because it is stipulated in the constitution.”

He called for the injection of new blood from the private sector into the public service, adding that anybody who is not abreast of information technology sh

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