Excessive public holidays bleed economy – Industrialists

Industrialists and stakeholders in the Organised Private Sector have frowned at what it described as excessive public holidays at the federal and state government level.
Apart from the holidays observed nationwide, the firm pointed out that there are other days reserved by some states in the federation to mark specific occasions.
Director General, Nigerian Employers Consultative Association, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, advised governments across the states and at the federal level to optimise the use of available human and other resources efficiently for improved productivity.
These state-specific holidays include Osun-Osogbo festival in Osun State; Islamic New year in Oyo State; marking of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election in Lagos, Oyo and Osun; coronation of the Olubadan of Ibadan Day holiday; Edo public sector day, oba’s coronation day in Edo State; as well as celebration of Islamic New Year in Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto states, among others.
He said, “As a nation, we don’t seem to appreciate that time is productivity, productivity is money and productivity is translated to Gross Domestic Products. The issue of excessive public holidays has to be addressed because holiday that ordinarily should be one day, for no reason that can be cited, government will declare two days.
“As a country, we need to start examining the values behind each public holiday because it reduces the capacity of the country to maximise our potential. I just hope that government will be able to get its hands round public holidays without succumbing to religious settlements. By now, the nation ought to have taken a decision on the holidays that are necessary and the ones that are not, to be able to grow the economy.”
According to him, government has been acting right in terms of the way holidays are being observed as some of them come even without sufficient notice. To him, it doesn’t really show that the country is serious. “We must trim down the number of holidays,” he added.
President, Trade Union Congress, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, said, “I know that if Nigeria was paying workers per hour, she would have realised the big loss to public holidays.”
Secretary General, Nigeria, International Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Olubunmi Osuntuyi, said, “There is the need to begin to look at our economy from every angle every second, minute, hour and day. We should always not be carried away by the situation at hand, but always do analysis of the loss to public holidays.
“It is not as if other countries don’t go for vacations, but not as many times as we do in Nigeria. The NBS should come up with a report of the losses we run per day of every vacation observed in this country. We need to know the value of each public holiday and how much we can put on it towards boosting the economy.”