Beyond The Inability To Settle Public Servants

Experience has shown that to every action, there is a reaction. The law of cause and effect did not begin with this age; many actions may never have been taken if the consequences were considered well ahead of time. That precisely is what is becoming of the public service in Nigeria.
The public service cuts across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies that serve the state (country) not the government as often mistaken. Public service is the umbrella term for all who work for the state, including those in the ministries referred to as civil servants, which can be used interchangeably. These servants of the state represent the state, they give voice to the unseen authority of the state.
Coming from the above, the importance of the persons working for the state cannot be over-emphasised. In fact, the recruitment of persons into the service in civilised countries is often very thorough. This is more so because they must be the best brains, as they will not only set standards for the private sector, but also provide the backbone for every government. In fact in many countries, public service is not only the best job, but the highest paid.
Whether the same is understood in Nigeria should be a serious source of concern. Erroneously, the public service is seen only as an employer of labour in Nigeria. That is why some officials at both the state and local government levels compensate political friends with mass employment before leaving office. In fact, they flood the offices with persons who in some cases did not ask for employment.
Bad as that may be, governments across the country now lack the ability to pay workers as and when due. More worrisome is the failure to meet pension obligations to retired and retiring public servants.
In fact, both the Federal Government and some state governments have reviewed the Pension Law to hurt workers when they are most vulnerable.
It is a constitutional provision in Nigeria, that no law should take retrospective effect. But instead of making the Contributory Pension Law take effect from the date of enactment, persons who signed up under a different law more than 30 years ago are compelled to suffer this law. Sadly, some persons that retired a year ago in some states are not being attended to because their benefits cannot be computed.
What the ordinary Nigerian may be seeing is the sudden death of senior citizens who gave their all to the state. Some may be seeing an ineffective public service among others. What should concern all well meaning persons should be the future of the civil service after now. It is not only about who would want to make a career in the civil service, but what would become the fate of the state without a viable civil service.
Because the civil service has been incapacitated by successive governments, nearly all the public servants have become partisan politicians. Why not, when appointment of Permanent Secretaries has become largely political, such that persons on GL14, even GL12 are appointed over and above their Directors on GL16 as Permanent Secretaries in some states.
The sad reality is that the change of government will always harm the state and its services. It is on record that there was a witch-hunt of sorts in many states against known members of the opposition party. In fact, many lost their positions, even jobs in a service that honours continuity, experience and job security.
The Tide thinks that the public service is a veritable power house of any nation. In fact, how effective the public service is determines how it is perceived and rated internationally. Clearly, there is no reason or basis for comparison and struggle for supremacy between the government and the public service.
They must necessarily work together, strengthen each other as envisaged by the Constitution and not otherwise. It must be clear to all, that the fall of the public service is the fall of all. Government will come and go but the service will remain to serve the greatest interest of all. But may it not be said that the biggest casualty of a lawless political class is the public service.
One of the reasons Nigerians are suffering is a fallen public service, not necessarily the government. But if state governments continue to starve the public workers, Nigeria will become ungovernable, because such governments would have ended up destroying the very basic apparatus of state service – our bureaucracy.