FOR recommending the sack 50 per cent of the country’s federal workforce as an economic policy, the Nigerian Labor Congress on Wednesday said that it is time that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is relieved of his duties as the Central Bank governor.
The Congress made the call through a statement signed by its president, Mr. Abdulwheed Omar, saying that Mr. Lamido’s policies has been anti-people since he emerged as the head of the nation’s apex bank.
The worker’s body also alleged that Sanusi’s policies have impacted negatively on Nigeria’s economy, saying his policies were bad for the country.
“The sack is necessary because since the governor’s assumption of office as the CBN boss, all his major pronouncements have been anti-people,” the statement read.
“Since assumption of office as the governor of CBN, all Sanusi’s major pronouncements have been either directly anti-people or ruinous to the Nigerian economy.’’
It said that the burden of wealth creation in Nigeria like any other country had been on workers, adding that they should not be treated like trash.
“Workers are the driving force of all economies and only a hollow economist would underplay this fact.
“The major problems of the Nigerian economy are corruption and lack of good governance, and until we solve these problems, our economy will continue in comatose.
“Today, there are countless probe reports with names of those who swindled our country of several trillions of both naira and other foreign currencies.
“Those involved are still living in Nigeria, walking freely around the corridors of power or directly holding public or political offices rather than being in jail,’’ it said.
The statement said that while President Goodluck Jonathan was promising to create more jobs, Sanusi was calling for mass sack of civil servants in a country with huge number of unemployed.
It added that the high level of unemployment had led to gross deprivation and the current state of insecurity in Nigeria.
“We believe the Federal Government will ignore the call of Sanusi, we believe that he has never demonstrated patriotism in all his advise on economic and financial management in Nigeria.
“The burden that will come with mass sack as high as 50 per cent of civil servants, in addition to the already saturated unemployment market can better be imagined.
“Governance is about improving the quality of lives of the people and not destruction of productive lives,’’ it said.
The statement also condemned the call for the scrapping of local governments in the country.
“Local government is an important tier of government in a Federal system and what we need is to strengthen the system to enable it deliver good governance.
“The local government is the closest to the grassroots, rather than removing it as proposed by Sanusi, it require more funding to enable them function properly as required under a Federal system.’’
Indeed Mr. Sanusi had called for the pruning of the federal civil service workforce by up to 50% if the nation’s economy is to be solvent.
He made the call at the Annual Capital Market Retreat in Warri, Delta, on Tuesday.