Fubara: Another Landmark Decision

On Friday August 16, 2024, at the swearing-in of six new permanent secretaries in the Executive Council Chamber, the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara said that his government will no longer approve contract services for retired Permanent Secretaries in the State so as to give room for others on the line to progress. According to the Governor, if the government continues to give contract to retired permanent secretaries there won’t be room for those who are coming behind, adding that as soon as any permanent secretary retires a new person will be appointed to replace the office. The Governor Fubara’s decision is a “Daniel come to judgement”. It is a commitment to seamlessly drive succession in the civil service. In my considered opinion, it also demonstrates the end of unnecessary bureaucratic gaps in the chain of progression in the civil service.
The civil service as an organised, structured and well coordinated machinery, helps every government in power to achieve policies and Programmes. This however, cannot be achieved if the machinery of government is ineffective and inefficient. A situation where those who are supposed to have left the civil service having attained the statutory retirement age and service years are still being retained in the service speaks volumes of lack of functional succession plan in the service. In the Civil service, ranking is transitional such that a staff on a rank today is expected to transit to the next level in three or four years if he or she meets the promotional requirements. By this subsisting policy there should not be a lacuna in the chain of progression in the service. The functionality of the arrangement makes training and retraining of staff inevitable to enable staff meet the statutory requirements of their anticipated job.
Where there is regular manpower or capacity development training for staff the civil service cannot suffer dearth of efficient and qualified personnel that will necessitate the retention of a civil servant who ought to have retired from the civil service. Retention of retired civil servants implies that those retained are indispensable and that no person in the service was qualified enough to assume that position. The tacit belief that the exit of a retired staff will create a vacuum in the chain of production only reveals a systemic dysfunction. It shows that the exit of such “indispensable” staff was not anticipated so that any vacuum that the absence of such staff would create would have been taken care of well ahead of retirement of such staff. Nothing happens fortuitously in an Organised, functional system.
Retaining those who have retired on their position while there are undoubtedly, staff who are qualified for the same position, does not foster career progression in the service. An efficient and effective service should ensure that no succession gap exists in an organization. And this is achievable by the training and retraining of staff in anticipation of their next level job roles and demands. If a superior officer proceeds on an annual or casual leave any person who acted in his or her absence should be deemed eligible to fill that position when the substantive officer retires. Some civil servants rarely proceed on annual leave because of the false beliefs that the absence of such officer would affect the smooth running of the office. The false belief that a staff is indispensable unwittingly shows that someone has not done what he or she was supposed to do to fill the gap. Should such officer die, will the office be closed? Will someone next in line not be posted to take charge?
Another reason why retention of some categories of staff seem inevitable is when there is lack of manpower in that area. To check such situation, service providers and employers of labour should identify areas where there is lack of manpower and fill them early enough, so the newly employed will understudy their superiors and acquire the desired relevant knowledge on the job that will make them progress and assume a higher responsibility. After all knowledge can be generated informally on the job, as the workers are trained and understudy their superiors.The Governor’s decision should serve as a wake-up call to train and retrain workers. Funds should also be made available to the manpower development experts in the service to end the retention of staff who have retired.

Igbiki Benibo