|
|
PRESS RELEASE BY THE COUNCIL OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMIC SOCEITY
[NES]
On Dollarised Ministers
We are not competent to speak on the legal aspects of this unnecessary, curiosome and controversy that in our view has gone on longer than it deserves. From a purely economic angle we do not see what useful purpose this unnecessary distraction or storm in a teacup will serve. The UNDP Totken initiative that offers salary inducement to nationals to make their valuable services available to their country is a long-standing programme. Many other countries have long been benefiting from it. The argument is a simple one. Again as part of unwarranted foreign dependency syndrome in developing countries, we often approach agencies like the UNDP for technical assistance. These usually come with foreign technical experts. They are paid heavily on our behalf to deliver blue prints on problems, which they sometimes hardly understand and in which they have very little stake if any at all. The blue-prints are left to gather dust on our shelves in the ministries for as many times as they are produced by a new set of foreign technical experts. Instead of this UNDP thought of an ingenious way of producing positive results. They introduced this programme to encourage nationals to be available to their countries to make their expertise available at similar or lesser costs with better chances of success, given the stake nationals would have in their countries’ development. These set of nationals are those who have succeeded in foreign lands and who may not be easily willing to sacrifice their good jobs, abandon all their obligations and responsibility in their host countries to come home.
This programme was therefore designed to serve as a stopgap measure to enable such individuals adjust to the transition period of coming back to home environment. The idea is that our of ten persons for example, two or more might decide to stay permanently while others may go back. It was therefore an ingenious way of fighting the serious problem of brain drain. Many countries are benefiting from this laudable scheme. Nigeria has been show in taking advantage of it. In actual fact my research center at the University of Ibadan was as long as ten years ago approached to accept two candidates on this programme. We could not because we were unable to guarantee required campus accommodation for them. If we now have high profile individuals like ministers being persuaded to resign from their jobs and offered this transition arrangement why would they or the programme deserve the amount sensation and verbiage we have poured on them? It is a laudable programme for which both the UNDP and the individuals who are willing to use it should be commended for contributing their little quota to brain drain reversal. If other ministers feel cheated by these two ministers who were honest about their demands and negotiated their pay, they should feel free to resign and renegotiate their conditions of service. The country stands more to gain from such honest deals and realistic salaries than taking nominal salaries only to seek to make up for the shortfall through other unwholesome deals and practices that we have come to accept as normal in government circles, and which this particular administration has at least by way of stating intentions is trying to discourage? It is time to allow these ministers settle down to their jobs while the nomenclature regarding their conditions of service is corrected for any legal inconsistencies.
|
|
Professor S.O. Olofin
President, Nigeria Economic Society NES
C/o Economics Department, University of Ibadan, Ibadan
|
|
|
