The organised labour on Wednesday berated the Governor of Central Bank, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, for calling for the sacking of 50 per cent of civil servants and urged the Federal Government to remove him.

The Nigeria Labour Congress specifically said Sanusi must be sacked before he destroyed the Nigerian economy.

Other groups that condemned the CBN governor included the Trade Union Congress, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, the Civil Liberties Organisation and Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union.

Sanusi had, at the Second Annual Capital Market Committee Retreat in Warri, Delta State on Monday, said the country spent 70 per cent of its earnings on salaries and entitlements of civil servants.

“You have to fire half of the civil service because the revenue of the government is supposed to be for 167 million Nigerians. Any society where government spends 70 per cent of its revenue on its civil service has a problem. It is unsustainable,” he said.

The NLC, in a statement on Wednesday by its President, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, said Sanusi should be sacked immediately before his action set the country on the part of “ruination.”

He stated, “We see in Sanusi an agent of death that must be defeated and crushed before he further destroys the Nigerian economy.

“He must be asked to leave the office as he has shown more than enough incompetence and contempt for the Nigerian people.”

He stated that since Sanusi took over as Governor of CBN, his statements had created the impression that he was against the people and economy of Nigeria.

“Even if you sack all the workers in Nigeria, any amount saved from that will be stolen and the culprits will walk in freedom,” he added.

Omar also said the number of aides in the office of the CBN Governor would not portray him as a man genuinely committed to the reduction of cost of governance in the country.

President of the TUC, Mr. Peter Esele, said Sanusi’s claims were as ridiculous as they were untrue and should be ignored.

He recalled that Sanusi made sweeping statements about the overhead cost of the National Assembly without facts and could not substantiate his claims when he was taken up on the issue.

Esele said, “I am beginning to think that the CBN Governor is idle. I think the idleness may be leading to what is happening to him.

“The budget of the CBN is appropriated and vetted within the CBN, there is no checks and balances, and it is accountable to no one.”

Secretary-General of the Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Onaghinon, said the CBN governor’s statement was condemnable.

He said, “We are surprised because this is Sanusi, who does not want to produce his budget for the National Assembly to see. Now, if Sanusi wants to spend money and does not want the National Assembly to know how much he is spending, then all political office holders and core civil servants must as well be retrenched.”

According to him, salaries and allowances of civil servants are not more than 18 per cent of the total budget.

The CLO described Sanusi’s recommendation as insensitive.

Addressing a news conference in Lagos, Lagos State Chairman of the CLO, Mr. Ehi Omokhuale, described the call as “a backward statement” by a public office holder.

“There was no justification in the recommendation,” Omokhuale said.

The National President of RATTAWU, Mr. Oluyemisi Bamgbose, told NAN that the statement was “unfortunate and unbelievable’’.

Also, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria advised the Central Bank Governor to tender his resignation letter to buttress his call for the sack of 50 per cent federal of the country’s work force.

The National President of the association, Mr. Olakunle Olaitan, told the News Agency of Nigeria that Sanusi’s position was outrageous.


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