Reducing the Cost of Governance
Of recent as budgets are being dissected, the issue of cost of governance has again come to the fore. People cannot spend what they do not have and should not spend what rightly belongs to or should be spent on others. It is also not right to sit at a job collecting a salary and contributing almost nothing. I suggest that these are more ethical issues. It should be easy to see that corruption thrives better when every stakeholder is indirectly served …some in bags of loot …others more elegantly in empty roles…. most in redundant jobs.
Jdg 7:2 And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
In environments that lack rigor, you will often find the odd dozen working ten hours a day unraveling the damage that another 1200 are doing. And worse the 1200 doing nothing will justify their idleness as a puny price to compensate them for keeping quiet as they observe vast funds spiral into an abyss. The suffering population – paying for everything in their being denied decent utilities – is told to wait and patience reaps its fruits as a new election ushers in fresh protagonists in this macabre drama. Every new group seems set to outdo the previous. A bloated civil service is not a secret. Perhaps less evident are the interrelated elements that must keep making it fatter and fatter.
I was maybe alone to be somewhat perturbed when I heard a testimony in church of a lady who after much struggles and unemployment suddenly found herself in a cosy government job and living in a huge government house in Abuja which eventually became hers within a few months. Every one said Hallelujah …perhaps a few wondered if this was not another shade of wastage/corruption. Maybe no one understood that everyone in the hall was indirectly paying for her new found joys. She may be doing better before God if she were running a farm in her village employing ten staff properly engaged and adding value as she goes further to process farmed crops to intermediate produce.
Unions are the easiest to manipulate … as every union leader seems poised to preserve or improve the benefits of the specific interest group they represent in a vicious game of monopoly or be voted out. The song of the unionist is ‘ my group will not be the first to sacrifice or release her goodies …let the sacrifice start elsewhere…” and they may be right. This manner of thinking makes them cheap to bribe given the huge stakes.
When a nation is perceived as corrupt … it actually speaks more of the people than the government. Why are the “holiest” people perceived as amongst the most corrupt … perhaps because they are too “holy” to see what is really going on. Rather than call for bold adjustments to self and others – they perhaps leave too much in the hands of God … who is always the perfect judge and rewarder… also making the church the most vulnerable target for tricksters. God is more than able to protect His house and true children. But who protects the corrupt nation if it persists on a wrong path?
No one is bold to announce that a call for 50% reduction in the Nigerian civil service is the understatement of the century. Dignity of labor was one of the key Bible ethics that built western civilizations. Fair pay for fair work. It is maybe still harsh to call for reductions when alternative small business opportunities are not adequately facilitated and normal safety nets that cushion redundancies are not in existence. But where do we put God in this equation? Who but us are taught to look up to God? Is God not able to meet our needs when we stand on His word? Do we imagine we will not answer for wastages and corruptions that deny funds to lift others living below the poverty line through improved amenities, affordable decent hospitals/ education …offering them a better life etc?
In my text, God speaks to Gideon that he cannot rely only on what He sees for help and also rely on God. God will not fight and give victory until Gideon adjusts to a situation where God can be glorified.
May God help us all to adjust. Let us begin by thinking differently. Trusting God.
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