Thread by @DavidHundeyin

I always find it fascinating how conversations like the one under this tweet focus exclusively on the moral failings of the public officials living above their incomes, and completely sidestep the fact that public sector wages in Nigeria are stupidly, ridiculously low.

https://twitter.com/ENIBOY/status/1378442570343321603

If my dad had not retired and gone private, I would not have had the opportunities I had and I would not have the life I have.

Are public sector workers in Nigeria not entitled to achieve self actualisation? Or that is reserved for the private sector alone?

These are the issues

My older sister once worked in the Lagos State Civil Service with her BA, MBA, 1 year experience at a bank and NIIT certifications in Java and C++.

Her monthly wage (2009)? N38,250 after deductions.

Is this realistic or genuinely sustainable? What do you expect will happen?

This is the basic difference between process thinking and magical thinking.

Process thinking discards moralistic, sermonising talk and draws a straight line from cause to effect.

Low wages + control of essential processes = access to black market cash cashflows = corruption.

Magical thinking on the other hand, expects that a Commissioner of Police who must have spent at least 10 years in the force after graduating from the police university (and will probably be married with children) should live as a senior officer on $600/month.

A corrupt public official is never justified of course, but the point is curbing public sector corruption has nothing to do with moralisation and calling people "thief."

It has everything to do with creating a system that makes corruption UNNECESSARY and difficult.