Nigeria: Sanusi - I Won't Stop Talking

Central Bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi yesterday replied those who criticized him over his comments on the huge cost of governance, saying he will not stop speaking on the defects in the economy. Sanusi was reported to have said last week that with at least 70 per cent of government revenue being spent on the government itself, the economy will be better off if 50 per cent of workers were fired.
Since then he has been under sustained criticism from legislators and labour unions who even called for his sack.
But Sanusi, who was speaking at the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, said yesterday that he will keep on making a case for changes that would see the cost of governance go down in spite of his critics.
He said his job was not to make anyone happy but to provide good fiscal and monetary policies.
"The day we stop to talk because of fear of what will be reported, it means this country is dead. My job is not to make people happy. If you are not happy, go to your wife," he said.
He blamed the constitution for creating too many political offices which guzzle lots of public funds in salaries and emoluments.
"These are issues we have to address; they are political issues; as a country, we have a constitution that makes it impossible for us to develop," he said.
"Salaries and wages are paid not just to civil servants. This is a country where we have 774 local government councils; in each council you have a chairman, a vice chairman and may be 10 councilors.
"Take a state like Kano. Kano used to be one state; it is now Kano and Jigawa; when it was one state, you had one governor, may be nine or 10 commissioners. Now what do you have? That one state has become two states, two governors, two deputy governors, 40 commissioners, and may be 80 legislators, only God knows how many special advisers and assistants.
"This is not about NLC or TUC or the president of the National Assembly; it is about us as a country deciding whether this constitution we have chosen makes sense."