More on preserving the civil service

The civil service was the focus of attention on this page early this month, after the political party primaries where many civil servants were seen to have openly competed for political offices at many levels. There were many responses to the piece with the two published below as representative of the strands of opinions. After going through the two viewpoints, you will agree with me that it is necessary for government to come up with clear guidelines on the participation of civil servants in the political processes so as to safeguard their neutrality and loyalty to the government of the day.

In 1979, the former FCT Minister, Mohammed Abba Gana, was a Chief Electrical Engineer in Chad Basin Development Authority, Maiduguri when he was appointed a Commissioner in the cabinet of Governor Mohammed Goni. He was thus transformed from being a civil servant to a political appointee and he later became an active politician. He was to remain on that perch for many years in Borno State before coming over to the Federal level to serve as FCT Minister and later Special Adviser to the President. The dilemma of a politicized civil service has agitated his mind for long and these are his thoughts:

“I cannot resist writing you in good time to appreciate and commend you for the excellent initiative in your column, early this month on this page, on how to save the civil service in Nigeria.

“During the First Republic the civil service in Nigeria was second to none amongst the Commonwealth Countries and the rest of the world. It was special and well respected and very patriotic elite group. It was the loyalty, professionalism, neutrality and patriotism of the civil service in the days and months after the January 1966 coup and the July 1966 counter coup and thereafter which gave the much needed support to the military to keep Nigeria one for all of us to live in. Therefore, the civil service is the soul of the three arms of government. So it must be saved from any kind of politics. Civil servants, in my view, can cast their vote in a secret ballot but should not participate in politics directly and openly.

“During the second Republic when Alhaji Shehu Shagari was President many civil servants were given political appointments at both the Federal and State levels. But sometime in 1980 or 1981 a meeting of the National Council of Establishments made recommendations to the various levels of government that any civil servant who accepted political appointment would not come back to the civil service in order to guarantee the neutrality of the civil service. All affected civil servants were directed to retire/resign according to their years in service. Those who qualified for pension or gratuity were to get such benefits. I was one of those affected. This action was taken in order to save the civil service from politics and political coloration and guarantee the neutrality and loyalty of civil servants to the government of the day. Of course any civil servant who wants to participate in politics can simply resign from the civil service and join any political party he wants. But it is dangerous to be civil servant and politician at the same time.” Engr. Mohammed Abba-Gana CON.

Professor Onje Gye-Wado is a man of many parts. He is a lawyer, an active politician, an active participant in the sporting arena and a novelist.We were contemporaries in the ABU Zaria of early 1970s, where we were conjoined as campus journalists. After spending the early years of his career in the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos he moved to University of Jos where he was Dean of the Faculty of Law. He was Deputy to Governor Abdullahi Adamu in Nasarawa State from where he moved to the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru as a Directing Staff. Having traversed Nigeria’s public service and is active in politics, I sought his opinion on this burning issue, and this is what he sent:

“The conversation on the locus of civil servant and the political processes has opened up two issues. First is the perceived or traditional role of civil servants. The second is the legal regime within which the civil servant operates. Different jurisdictions have expectedly provided different responses.

The civil service as the bureaucracy is normally considered the engine room of government. Consequently, the civil service is supposed to be non-partisan and yet loyal to all governments. This is prevalent in most Western countries. On the other hand, Socialist countries have recognized and accepted the rights of citizens to participate in the political processes of their countries. While the desirability and effectiveness of either is determined by the general direction of each country, it is obvious that the material condition extant in each society plays a dominant role. From all indices, China is the most economically stable and developed country in the world and yet accepts all workers as part of its political processes.

“On the question of the legal regime, there are two levels. The domestic and national regime draws its legitimacy from the constitution. The Nigerian constitution recognizes the right of persons to assemble and to freely associate with others. It is against this background that the Supreme Court since 2003 affirmed this right and further held that civil servants are also entitled to join any political party and hold party membership cards. Additionally, they may participate in the political processes and must resign their civil service appointments at least thirty (30) days to the general elections. At the international level, the right of persons to participate in the political processes of their countries is guaranteed by numerous United Nations conventions and instruments as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. What this translates to is the realization of the totality of the human person who must contribute to the development of his society even through the political processes.

“My senior and boss was a thorough bred civil servant at the highest national level. Gambo Dori was my senior and boss at Shadow Publications at Kongo Campus, ABU Zaria in the 70s. Understandably, he is finding it difficult to live with the current situation. I am not in a hurry to assert the end of history, ala Francis Fukuyama. But this trend is now both national and global. In sympathy with this columnist, the current euphoria is not the overzealousness of civil servants but the dominating legal regime complemented by the interpretative role of the Judiciary. In the final analysis, I share with him the need for technical review of the role of the civil service that may benefit from a constitutional intervention.

“That is where it ends. In my view to shield civil servants from political processes will be playing the ostrich. They are critical stakeholders in both the electoral processes and national development. For any government to desire neutrality as well as loyalty may be in the moon. Besides the civil servant is educated and can exercise the desired discretion. Certainly, the fundamental challenge of the Nigerian State is development because of the poverty of leadership. Nigeria urgently needs a leader that can inspire citizens and drive national processes to the next level. Then the 2019 general elections may be useful.” Professor Onje Gye-Wado.