A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, has called for the strengthening of merit in the nation’s civil and public service establishment, saying the rule on federal character and quota system in employment and promotion should not be elevated over merit.
Chidoka who was at also a former Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), made the call on Wednesday in Abuja.
He was speaking on the topic: “Getting Big Things Done- Improving the Effectiveness of Cross-Over Professionals in Government”, at a public discussion organised by Nextier and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
According to him, federal character and quota system remain the greatest corruption in the country, where people that do not merit a position are given job over people better qualified than them.
“It is an aberration that we have introduced in Nigeria, someone that score 15 percent is entering into a place where people are scoring 95 percent. It is the worst of all crime. It is biggest corruption that is in Nigeria and what can destroy the Nigeria Public Service,” Chidoka said.
He lamented that it has been difficult to reform the Nigerian Civil Service because “Civil Servants live in eternity,” and that they have the patience to wait for the tenure of politicians to expire and get back to doing whatever they want and throw out whatever reform.
He also said that one of the greatest disservices to the nation is that ministers do not have power over civil servants in their ministries and may have to work with people who do not share their ideas, dreams and visions.
In her goodwill message, the Programme Coordinator, OSIWA, Catherine Angai said: “The bureaucracy in Nigeria presents one of the problems that a senior colleague always references as wicked problems. It is a systems problem. The system is not working as effectively or efficiently as it should, the system is failing. This has a direct impact on one of the fundamental obligations of Government – the delivery of public goods. What again is the benefit of democracy if there is no good governance?”
According to her, in the OSIWA strategy document, the biggest challenge facing West Africa region is poor governance.
She noted that: “Poor governance is exacerbated by rapid urbanization and population explosion. These factors are not waiting for the system to catch up. Poor governance according to our context analysis is the root cause of extractive and abusive political, social and economic systems which in turn frustrates key areas OSIWA is particularly interested in justice sector reforms, inclusive economic growth, citizens access to basic public services, such as health and education. Indeed, poor governance compromises democratic institutions and creates the conditions that are conducive for insecurity and fragility.”
Speaking earlier, the Founding Partner of Nextier, Patrick Okigbo decried that Nigeria’s public service has a myriad of challenges.
He said that something needed to be urgently done, and that government should create an enabling environment while the private sector drives economic growth and development.
“The Government of Nigeria goes fishing in non-public sector waters for talents to drive such results. Many Nigerians who “crossover” from civil society and private sector organizations to work in government have challenges adjusting to public service realities and demands. Although hitherto successful in their former roles, they contend with the different rules, incentives, and motivations governing the service,” Okigbo said.
Also speaking, the Executive Vice Chairman of Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, said that there was a huge capacity deficit in the public sector and that the workforce structure in government MDAs was such that there were too many people doing too little in the system.
He said, “The resultant effect on national development is that 25 percent of public sector programmes and projects are completed and 46 percent of the completed projects are not satisfactory.”
However, the Secretary to Adamawa State Government, Engr. Umar Bindiri, said for cross over professionals to succeed in the public sector, they should be clear about what they want to achieve, cultivate tact and respect for the civil servants in the system, avoid needless complains and learn the complexities of procurement.
On his part, a former Director-General of Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Joe Abah, said that understanding principals, protocols, and institutional character were necessary for private sector professional to succeed in the public sector.
According to him, some of the reasons for the frustration and failure of some private sector professional who get appointments into government include ignorance of public service rules and code of conduct as well as the ideological terrain and the psychology of civil service.
Abah said, “If you ‘import’ people who do not have the knowledge of public service rules and code of conduct into government, you might actually end up creating more problems than you thought. It’s an important arrangement to infuse fresh ideas, but there is a way that things are done in the civil service and you need to respect it. Otherwise, you end up being frustrated and burnt in the end.”
However, a former Minister of Finance and National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, noted that protecting professionals, who are crossing over from the private to the public sector, from the distractions of the political system would help them concentrate on achieving results.
Usman said, “The cross-over professional needs to be protected from the political system. If you’re a CEO of a government agency coming from the private sector, you can get a lot of things done in government because you are protected at that level.
“But part of the problem at the ministerial level is the fact that most governments come unprepared. It usually takes them about four or five years for them to realise the need for reforms.”
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