Economist Seeks Purge in Public Sector

Agency Report/

A Professor of Economics at University of Ilorin, Prof. Gafar Ijaiya, has called for reduction in the civil service workforce to curb redundancy.

Ijaiya told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Wednesday that the number of people in government offices were much more than available work.

He said most states would not have problem of relying on the federal allocation before payment of salaries if the number of people being paid were reduced.

”Going by what played out some months back, it is already obvious that most of the states cannot pay their workers’ salaries without allocation from the Federal Government.

”So, the states need to cut down on their expenses and one of such ways is to sanitise the civil service.

”The civil service has been over flooded because there are a lot of people there that are not doing anything.

”For now, government’s work has reduced and there is nothing much to do.

”So, I advise that there should be a reduction in the number of people in the civil service,” Ijaiya said.
He said that some of the workers should be replaced with technology for more efficiency.

”You need to go to all these ministries, you will find out that they are not doing anything.

”There is the need to include more technology in what we do because with technology, there will be less people on the desks.

”Unlike now that we have so many people doing nothing, but with technology you will have only competent hands that will bring good results.

”I think with that the issue of delay or non-payment of salaries will not arise,” the professor said.

He said that with such decision, internally generated revenues could be diverted to other development projects and not salary payment alone.

*NAN

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