Your Most (Dis)obedient Servants
Sitting at meetings with former President Olusegun Obasanjo is almost akin to attending an advanced class in government and politics and if you pay attention, you are going to learn a lot. That has been my experience in the past three years on the Advisory Board of the African Initiative for Governance (AIG) being promoted by Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. Last Friday, at the meeting which preceded the Saturday and Sunday sessions for the selection of the next cohort of Oxford University scholarship candidates, we spent time reviewing the initiative and the prospects for meeting set objectives.
At the session, Obasanjo shared several anecdotes but the most striking is the one involving a prominent retired federal permanent secretary. According to the story, following his appointment as a minister during the Second Republic in 1979, a particular politician called his permanent secretary to read the riot acts, as they say. “I have heard stories of how you civil servants were manipulating the military so in this ministry, I want to see everything before decisions are taken. Let me make myself very clear: Before I take any decision, I want all information Repucci, “The civil service is the backbone of pertaining to those issues.” the state, and can either support or undermine
By the time the said minister arrived at a country’s entire system of governance.” work the next morning, he met dozens of files What that suggests is that there is no way that took his entire table and the adjoining this system can work effectively and deliver conference table with cross references that he on public good until we have a professional needed to check. Not only did he not have civil service with the requisite character to time to attend to anybody or anything else look beyond its own interests. In his piece that day, the minister had to close very late on Tuesday, Dr Reuben Abati dealt with to be able to clear his table. But by the time some of those issues by explaining the he returned to office the next morning, the rationale behind the establishment of AIG minister met a bigger number of files and by Aig-Imoukhuede, aside raising salient higher volumes of cross references. questions about the nature of our civil service.
According to Obasanjo, by the second Meanwhile, the young men and women each week, the exasperated minister had to call of us engaged separately were not people in his permanent secretary to ask, “Why looking for something to do, majority of them are you doing this to me?” to which the are mid-career professionals who already response came sharply: “Sir, you said you have good jobs, mostly in the private sector. want to see everything…” To this, the minister While that gave me encouragement about responded, “What I mean is that I want to Nigeria, we must also deal with the character see the essentials.” Apparently prepared for of our civil service. this response, the permanent secretary then On Tuesday, ‘Daily Trust’ reported how civil said: “In that case, Honourable Minister, you servants in Abuja are now playing full-time have to put it in writing that henceforth you politics. According to the newspaper, Mr want to see only the essentials.” Idris Mamman Durkwa, a director at the
With the memo that followed from the federal ministry of agriculture, who lost out minister, power had effectively changed hands during the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the ministry because, as the permanent gubernatorial primaries in Borno State, has secretary reportedly told Obasanjo, only one returned to his office “The constitution of man could determine what was ‘essential’ the country is very clear about this. Only if in the ministry. And that man happened to you are contesting in a general election that be the permanent secretary! you are mandated to resign from service
That Nigeria is not working is a fact that 30 days to the general elections, that is all; only those who deceive themselves would and I can serve you with judgements upon dispute. Yet, there is nothing that one can judgements of the supreme court about this. accuse the political class of for which the civil Even the APC guidelines allow you to contest service can be exonerated. As the main organ primaries and go back to your work,” Durkwa through which the policies and programmes reportedly told the newspaper. of government are implemented, it stands to Similarly, Mr. Bitrus Bako Nabasu, the reason that the civil service is also culpable in permanent secretary at the federal ministry the rot that now defines our society. Indeed, of Science and Technology, had in 2015 according to a research paper published by returned to his position after losing the the United Nations University titled ‘Civil Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial Service Reform: A Review’ credited to Sarah primaries in Plateau State while Ms Amanda
THISDAY Newspapers Limited. Pam, recently resumed back to work at the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) after losing her bid for a senatorial ticket. What these civil servants are relying on to justify their self-serving action is a judgement of the supreme court which does not offer the comfort they claim.
The story started in 2002 when the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, went to court on behalf of the then unregistered political parties, arguing that certain sections of the Electoral Act 2001 which barred civil servants from belonging to political parties were unconstitutional. He also asked the court to declare that INEC had no power to make guidelines on how an association could become a political party since section 222 of the 1999 Constitution had already made provisions for that.
In the concurrent judgment delivered by Justice Niki Tobi, the supreme court nullified INEC’s guideline No 5(b) which stated that “a person shall not be eligible to be registered as a member of political association seeking to be registered as a political party if he/she is in the civil service of the federation or a state because it offends the provisions of sections 40 and 222(b) of the 1999 Constitution” as argued by the late Fawehinmi.
However, in clarifying what the supreme court ruled as against what the media reported at the time, the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Senator Kanu Agabi, emphatically stated that civil servants cannot be members of political parties and that the apex court was quoted out of context. According to Agabi, “the Supreme Court did not declare that civil servants are at liberty to join political parties. It declared as unconstitutional guideline No.5 (b) issued by the INEC, which disqualified civil servants from being members of political associations, which seek to be registered as political parties. It also declared as unconstitutional section 79(2)(c) of the Electoral Act 2001 which provided that a person shall not be eligible to be registered as a member of a political party if he is a member of the public service or civil service of the federation, a state or local government, as defined by the constitution.”
After stating that the judgment of the apex court was “without doubt, correct and binding on all”, but that “its effects have been misconstrued by those who reported it”, Agabi went further to quote what the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, said in his concurrent judgement. These were the words of Uwais: “No officer shall, without express permission of the government, whether on duty or leave of absence: (a) hold any office, paid or unpaid, permanent or temporary, in any political organisation; (b) offer himself or nominate anyone else as a candidate for any elective office including membership of a Local Government Council, State or National Assembly; (c) engage in canvassing in support of political candidates. Nothing in this rule shall be deemed to prevent an officer from voting in an election...It is important to mention that the provisions of the Civil (Public) Service Rules have not been challenged in this case and therefore their validity is not in issue for determination by this court. Reference to the restriction had been made merely in passing by Defendant/ Appellant in order to canvass the validity of section 79 subsection (2)(c) of the Electoral Act, 2001.”
What the foregoing means is that the civil (public) service rules do not make allowances for partisan gamblers who would leave their jobs, seek the nominations of political parties and return after they fail. Civil servants who enjoy security of tenure, because of the rules governing their appointments and termination, cannot eat their cakes and still have them. Besides, the moment we institutionalise such a practice, given our environment, we have unwittingly set in motion the process for the total destruction of the civil service in Nigeria.
What the current situation therefore signposts is that we must begin a conversation about the kind of civil service we want for our country. And, as I said last week, there can be no better time for that than now!