Former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Chief Philip Asiodu, on Tuesday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to address the high cost of governance in the country.
Asiodu also canvassed a maximum of N25m as remuneration, including salaries and allowances, for governors.
He spoke in a lecture titled 'The public service and the transformation agenda: Redefining the rules of engagement', which he delivered at the Justice Mohammed Uwais National Leadership Award in the Shehu Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja.
The event was jointly organised by the National Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and the Nigerian Television Authority.
Asiodu said, "The President should lead the nation to adopt and live with more realistic national remuneration scales for all those paid from the public purse.
"Nigeria's per capita income is only N300,000 per annum.
"I would suggest the following maximum figures for aggregate remuneration (basic salary plus allowances) per annum.
"President N30m; governors N25m; head of the National Assembly, judiciary and federal ministers N24m."
He called for greater transparency in the public procurement process, saying over 200 per cent inflation of costs had been reported in several instances.
Asiodu said, "There must be a drastic reduction in the cost of governance at the federal, state and local government levels.
"Let us remind ourselves that the Federal Government of the United States is run through 12 departments (or equivalent of ministries) and no American state has more than six persons of the status of our state commissioners.
"Here, some states have more than 24 commissioners and scores of special advisers and special assistants."
He said the annual revenue of the Federal Government never exceeded £40m during the colonial administration, only rising to £50m during the Tafawa Balewa administration, and £100m during the Gowon administration.
"But it was from such meager resources that the railways were built," he said.
Asiodu also blamed the military administration of Generals Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo for some ills currently plaguing the country, including the high level of corruption in the public service.
On his part, the chairman of the event, former Vice-President, Alex Ekwueme traced the woes of the public service to the creation of 12 states in May 1967 by the Gowon administration, and the purge of about 10,000 civil servants by the Muhammed/Obasanjo administration.
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