Nigerian political structures economically wasteful -Sanusi

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi yesterday said that the present political structures of Nigeria are too cumbersome and economically wasteful to guarantee rapid development of the country and a state of emergency should be declared in Nigeria’s educational sector because procrastination on the issue will inflict incalculable and irreversible damage in the nation.


Sanusi who spoke as the Guest Speaker on the occasion of the presentation of Professor Adamu Baike’s book, “Against All Odds” at Arewa House, Kaduna noted that the present 36 States are spending 96 percent of their revenues to pay salaries of their respective civil servants in an economy that is to develop on a long term basis, and posed a rhetorical question, “do we need 36 States, do we need the number of ministries that we have”?

He also pointed out that the federal government is spending 70 percent of its total revenue to pay workers’ salaries as well as taking care of the overhead cost, maintaining that it has denied the growth of some vital sectors of the socio-economy of the nation, leaving only 30 percent for 150 million Nigerians.

CBN Boss whose paper presentation was entitled, “Re-Invigorating Education in Nigeria”, lamented that there are 71,000 Nigerian students in Ghana who are paying not less than 155 billion naira as tuition annually, compared with the annual budget of 121 billion naira for the entire federal university education in Nigeria.

According to him, “Ultimately we will have to be confronted with the task of taking very difficult steps in looking at the political structures that we have. Do we need 36 States, do we need the number of ministries that we have. It is an economy in which states spend 96 percent of their revenues to pay their civil servants. Is this an economy that is likely to be developed in the long term?

“These are difficult questions that we need to ask, we have created states and local governments and ministry structures that are economically unviable, and the result is that we do not have funding for infrastructures, we do not have funding for education, we do not have funding for health.

“I don’t know how many people know that 70 percent of the total revenue of the Federal government is spent paying salaries and over head, and leaving the remaining 30 percent for 150 million Nigerians.

“For example, according to a newspaper account, and quoting the chairman, committee of governing councils of Nigerian Federal Universities: “there are 71,000 Nigerian students in Ghana who pay not less than 155 billion naira as tuition annually, compared with the annual budget of 121 billion naira for the entire federal university education in Nigeria. Findings placed Nigeria third on the list of countries with the highest number of students studying overseas.