READ How Civil Service Was Destroyed

Olubunmi Ajayi, the former president of the Association of Nigerian Professional Bodies, has said that the foundation for the destruction of Nigeria’s civil service began in 1975 during the military reign of late Murtala Mohammed.

He said during this period, the late Head of state commenced sacking civil servants through announcements on the radio and that this act drastically reduced the morale of the country’s civil servants.

Ajayi however said though it was unintended because it was supposed to sanitise and strengthen the civil service, it ended up destroying the civil service because it was counter-productive as there was no longer security of tenure among civil servants.

But rather than strengthen the service, it created opportunities for serious job insecurity and corruption.

In this case, civil servants who no longer felt safe, had to resort to corrupt acts.

According to him, the civil service is supposed to advise and implement government policies.

But he argued that the civil servants have not been allowed to play that role by successive governments.

“The morale of the civil servants were destroyed by the Murtala Mohammed’s government which retired civil servants on radio.

“In 1975, Murtala came and started sacking on the radio and this dampened the morale of the civil servants,” he said in a television programme monitored by our correspondent,” he lamented.

He said successive governments have since relegated the importance of the civil service and reduced it to just carrying out the orders of the President or the governors as the case may be.

“We are not running proper democratic government yet. Like yesterday, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode removed some heads of agencies.

“When then General Obasanjo came with the Operation Feed the Nation, the documents got to me and attached were documents from Ghana on why we should do it.

“Then I said: ‘this is Operation Fool the Nation’, but my boss called me to his office and told me that once the Commander-In-Chief wants something, he is not asking for your advice but how to implement it.”

He also lamented the problem being caused the civil service by the constitutionally recognized Federal Character which stipulates almost an equal representation in government.

As a result, junior officers are sometimes imposed on their senior officers just to balance the political equation and this, according to him, only destroys the civil service.

He said the situation in the civil service has deteriorated to the extent that an average civil servant today cannot even advise the minister.

“The Federal Government should be ready to make the civil servants do their actual jobs of advising on policies,” he advised saying this would mean setting example for state governors.

“What we’ve had is quasi-military settings where you just wake up and hear that a governor has removed you.

“Before now, on issues of corruption, there was interdiction in which they suspend the civil servant till investigation is complete,” he said while adding that there were other stipulated ways civil servants were punished when they erred.

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