“Productivity is a Measure of Output From a Production Process, Per Unit
of Input” –OECD “Compendium on Productivity”
By
Francis Adewale
Tioluwanimi@yahoo.com
The next war in Nigeria may have nothing to do with Boko Haram or Niger
Delta, but all to do with labor and productivity. Currently the federal
government of Nigeria and the states are in a logjam on who is responsible
for the non implementation of the new minimum wage for public sector
employees. The federal government and labor organizations claimed that
they reached an agreement in principle that binds all state government to
pay the agreed wage increase which seems substantial when you consider the
paltry allocation each state gets from the federal purse. The various
state governments claims they are not party to that an agreement even
though they were invited to the negotiations. I believe at the heart of
this grotesque imbroglio is the antiquated idea that workers earning
should be fixed monthly irrespective of output.
I think the parties
are putting the cart before the horse, any attempt to determine an
arbitrary wage increase without an appreciation of productivity is bound
to fail. What is more, it actually breeds corruption. Even though the
supposed increased wage may look and sound substantial one needs to look
at it against the backdrop of the huge inflationary trends in Nigeria.
Every benefits of publicized wage increase to workers in Nigeria often
invariably leads to arbitrary increase in cost of living and expense. An
arbitrary fixing of wage may also be the main reason why civil servants
rarely stays at their job post as they are busy looking for other means to
support their family. Anyone who thinks earning the newly set minimum wage
will help increase productivity is dreaming. The new wage cannot feed a
family of two for a week. So workers earning such pay will basically sign
in and then run around looking for contracts or have a shop somewhere
where they could make ends meet.
A serious reform will overhaul the entire civil service, stream line jobs,
state by state based on the needs of each community. The federal
government for instance is top heavy without any commensurate performance
and impact on local community. Some of the state government are so bloated
and irrelevant to the community they are meant to serve. For instance,
there is no reason why the Federal government should be involved in
building houses, at best it should encourage states to pull resources
together such as would encourage interlocal cooperation that would ensure
prices of building materials such as cement et al would not be too
exorbitant. The FGN should of course help such states access funds by
providing guarantees for such interlocal agreement.
Nigeria is perhaps the only "federal" government where the central
government directly repairs and build road networks including putting up
sign post on the so called federal highways, which in itself is an
aberration. A true federal government ensures regional government carried
out its will through smart deployment of resources through federal
legislation that tied funds to interlocal cooperation among local
government and state governments. Duplication of services between federal,
states and local government will be reduced and accountability will be
better ensured. The current scenario makes for a bloated federal
government.
Who in their right mind, would for one second think if the Lagos-Ibadan
expressway or Lagos-Benin expressway had been a primary project of
regional governors with the same access to funds that FGN had invested on
these roads for the past 12 years will still remain comatose and eyesore
as it is?
Heck the Lekki road that was concession-ed after the former is going at a
faster pace than Lagos-Ibadan road where nothing but the signboard
announcing the award of the contract had been in place for more than 2
years! It is always difficult to make federal government accountable in
the current scenario; a smaller federal government will put focus on
“lazy” state and local governments. All the popular changes we have
witnessed so far in the fourth republic have all come from visionary state
government, be it Donald Duke’s Cross Rivers state or Governor Fashola’s
Lagos. Democratic efforts for change in government in places like Ogun
State, Imo State and Nassarawa state also come from state citizens tired
of inept state government who are not doing anything for them. Whereas it
is easy for politicians at the federal level to blame Federal Government
ineptness on sharia, militants, Boko Haram, or any ethnic palaver, it is
much more difficult for governors like Gbenga Daniel to blame lack of
portable water in Ijebu Ode on sharia!
We need increased productivity but it can only come after a smart reform
that will ensure that we do things differently and that will ensure we get
maximum productivity from our civil service even while we paid them well
for their services. It is suggested that such reforms must neither be
political, nor political party driven! We are currently running a civil
service with colonial mindset in the 21st century!
|