How Not To Reform Civil Service

Globally, it is acknowledged that the civil service is the
think tank of government. The person or group of persons that work in the civil
service form what is popularly  known as
civil servants.

Professor A. S. Hornby defines civil servant as an official in
the civil service that  has to do with
all government departments. Meanwhile, government is defined as  “governing or power to govern, method or
system of governing; body of persons governing a State.”

Of course, the word” civil” simply means human society,
people living together and have all civil rights and duties.

If the above definitions are anything to go by, it means
government cannot exist effectively
without civil servants. In effect, government itself is civil service
while those who render civil service are civil servants. In other words, the
most senior official at the helm of affairs to the least person (cleaner) are
all civil servants.

A publication in a local tabloid,  “THE REFORMER” newspaper captioned: “Civil
Servants are most corrupt” of Thursday, June 14-19 2012, reported that we have
so many civil servants that are not needed in the service but employed by the
civil service commission.

The allegation was made during the last  civil service conference  held in Port Harcourt with the theme: “The
Transformation Agenda and the Public Service in Nigeria.” At the forum,
chairperson of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Deaconess J.O. Ayo, urged
the commission to be devoid of political interference in order to engender
accountability and meritocracy.

The question is, who are the corrupt  civil servants? And who established the civil
service commission, to co-ordinate the activities of civil servants who have
been designated corrupt”?

However, if all government workers  have sworn to render their civil  responsibilities to the society at the
federal, state and local government levels, then the  issue of corruption should be properly
examined.

But in tackling corruption in the civil service, government
ought to take cognizance of the fact that for civil servants to render
services  meritoriously, there must be
commensurable motivation. It is discouraging
for a civil servants to put in 35 years in service without having a roof
over his/her head, let  alone buy a car.

It is unfortunate
that the ordinary  civil servants
languish  in silence without adequate
motivation to enhance effective, efficient service delivery and high
productivity in the civil service. In as much
as civil  service reform and the
correction  of any identified
anomaly  in the service is desirable,
clear modalities should be put in place by those in authority to achieve that.
Any reform in the civil service must be done with clear objective, devoid of
political patronage or vendetta.

It is necessary to note that no civil servant can give out
what he does not have. The quality or service rendered largely depends  on the quality of training  he gets while in the service. That is why the
issue of sending  civil servants on
regular training is imperative and must be taken into account by advocates of
civil service reforms.

Reforms  in the civil
service, wherever it is carried out, is progressive and  gradual in nature. First,  attempts have to be made to discover why  various panel reports in the past on civil
service reforms were not implemented.

We had the Morgan commission of  1963, the Adebo Commission of 1971 and the
Udoji Commission of 1972-74. We also had the Dotin Philips Panel of 1985 and
the 1988 Civil Service Re-organisation
Decree promulgated by former military President, General Ibrahim
Babangida, which made permanent secretaries to be known as  directors-generals.  Other efforts have been made to reform the
civil service since 1999. Yet, there has been little or no success.

If in the face of all these the civil service is still
considered stagnant, then something is wrong somewhere.

What I am concerned with is the need for all to know that
the sanctity of civil service has to be preserved. Any reform that will  rob the service of its tradition, of
non-partisanship will be counter-productive. Reforms of this nature goes far
beyond the compulsory retirement or sack of workers. It includes the
professionalisation of the service with an attendant review of the conditions
of service.

There is no one that does not desire an efficient and
effective service. Nevertheless, it is important that those  who head the service must be exemplary. On
the other hand, government must desist from interfering in the civil service.
This will ensure greater productivity by the workers.

Ominyanwa resides in Port Harcourt.

Goddey Ominyanwa