Mundane reform in Nigeria - a sign of progress?
The BBC reported on a bit of non-spectacular, non-disaster news from Nigeria. This kind of news may be more important for government and politics than the riots and kidnappings in the delta. Then again, in spite of his credentials (see the link to the profile of Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai,), perhaps the reforms are simply aimed at removing Vice President Abubakar's supporters from government service. It is nice for the government to have all that oil money coming in.Nigeria to cut thousands of jobs
"Some 33,000 Nigerian civil servants are to lose their jobs by the end of this year, a minister has said.
"This amounts to about 20% of Nigeria's 160,000 public workers.
"The minister in charge of civil service reform, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, said that those who did not lose their jobs would be given an unspecified pay rise.
"He said many of those to be sacked were unfit, guilty of serious misconduct or "ghost workers", inherited from the years of military rule...
"The measures are intended to improve efficiency in Nigeria's civil service, which has a poor reputation...
"The government said it has earmarked 50bn naira ($389m) for the "house-cleaning exercise", which would be used not only to pay for redundancies but also increased salaries..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:42 AM
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Then again, maybe not...
The lady was for moving
"NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA may not have been loved by many of Nigeria's politicians, but she had become well-known abroad as her country's best hope for cleaning up its rotten public finances. So President Olusegun Obasanjo's recent decision to remove her from the finance ministry and make her, instead, the country's foreign minister surprised everyone, not least because of his own keen desire for credibility abroad. The move certainly shocked Mrs Okonjo-Iweala herself.
"Most diplomats and bankers see it as a threat to Nigeria's economic reform, despite the president's assurances that she will still head his economic team. They credit her with bringing more openness and monetary stability to one of the world's most corrupt countries and for persuading foreign creditors to write off debts of $18 billion last year...
"Pessimists, however, fear she has been moved to clear the way, ahead of next year's elections, for the plunder of public coffers, now stuffed with billions of dollars thanks to her careful budgeting and high oil prices. Her replacement is her former deputy, Nenadi Usman, respected abroad but seen by many Nigerian politicians as a lightweight who will struggle to push unpopular reforms past legislators keen on re-election. Nigeria's fiscal responsibility bill, which would enshrine many of Mrs Okonjo-Iweala's reforms, has been languishing in parliament for months..."
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