NIGERIA CIVIL SERVICE AND CHANGE
When Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said during the inaugural quarterly civil service lecture in February this year that civil servants were sometimes called “evil” servants, it was not to deride the service. Osinbajo, who delivered a thought provoking speech at the occasion, warned that no country could afford a corrupt civil service. He said where civil servants subvert the service for personal gains, “it is the greatest tragedy that a nation can experience.”
Yet, unfortunately, many would argue that this is exactly the type of government bureaucracy Winifred Oyo-Ita inherited in January 2016 when she was sworn-in by President Muhammadu Buhari. It’s a civil service where productivity, efficient and timely service delivery are low on priorities. It is a service where corruption, poor service ethics, nepotism and self-aggrandizement reign supreme.
Reforming such a bureaucracy and changing the service orientation of personnel is no doubt a daunting task. Yet this is what Oyo-Ita hopes to do and is doing. Her strategy for success appeared to have been informed by personal experience and the experience of her predecessors.
A reform premised on high-handedness and militarystyle discipline hardly endures. It may work in the short term, but it is usually a sociological strategy that can bring lasting change. Only a subtle, humane, welfarist and sustained model can reform our bureaucracy to deliver suitable service for national development.
This appears to be the strategy of the current Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Oyo-Ita. Quietly but steadily, Oyo-Ita is reforming the service and repositioning it for the task of national development. Oyo-Ita is trying to motivate civil service personnel for higher productivity and service delivery.
She seemed to believe that an ill-motivated work force can never be an asset for national growth. A country that doesn’t priorotise the welfare of its citizens and especially its work force is doomed to stagnation. One of the most effective ways of checking corruption and motivating labour is to priorotise its welfare.
Oyo-Ita had pledged that under her the service would chart a new course driven by efficiency, productivity, transparency and the interest of the citizenry. She seemed determined to deliver by making workers welfare paramount and meeting service demands simultaneously.
The office of the head of service has pursued with such uncommon vigour, the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Programme, which culminated in last month’s signing of an MOU with major stakeholders to provide affordable housing for federal civil servants. The mortgage refinance agreement was signed between Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board (FGSHLB) and Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company, at the 2017 FISH Housing Summit organized by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
A second MOU was also entered between Family Homes Funds which is another government institution to provide affordable housing and the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Programme.
Oyo-Ita, who declared the Summit open said it was organized to deliberate on sustainable pathways for the successful implementation of the Federal Integrated Staff Housing Programme (FISH-P) as well as unearth new sources of funds for the programme.
The MOU were signed towards approving loan that would make it possible for some Federal Civil Servants to purchase houses under the Government’s backed FISH programme.
The new administration has also prioritised payments of salaries. Oyo-Ita seemed to have agonised over delay in the payment of staff salaries as demonstrated in her last May Day speech to workers. She said the Buhari administration was concerned about the welfare of workers and would leave no stone unturned to meet their ‘rightful demands.’
She stated: “As the nation’s economy bounces out of recession and returns to the path of sustainable growth, attention will be paid to the other welfare matters of the Nigeria Workers in line with the 2017-2020 Economic Recovery and Growth Plan” She disclosed further that efforts were on to pay arrears of salaries owed federal workers.
While she pursues workers’ welfare, she has also vigorously taken reformist steps to modernise the civil service for effective and efficient service delivery. She has been working, as her predecessors, with the National Planning Commission, the Federal Civil Service Commission and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms to develop a new, robust performance management system.
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